#and these disposable vapes are ruining the environment

[fingertipsmp3]

In some other news I am not being assigned projects so for all I fucking know I don’t have a job anymore 👍🏻

[xonikkiss]

5th Week of SCIENVB

So my groupmates and I decided to discard the idea of collecting the trash around the Agno area and came up with presenting two projects: (1) segregating the trash from Agno and (2) collecting used vape pods.

I came up with the second idea. As a vape smoker myself and someone who frequents smoking areas around Taft, I have noticed that there are now more students using vape devices (such as Juul, Suorin, etc.) than the traditional cigarettes. In a vape device, the only thing that needs to be renewed is the pod. The pod is basically the compartment for the juice that holds the flavor and nicotine. The reason why it has to be renewed is because in the pod, there’s an organic cotton there that absorbs the juice and it is wrapped around with a wire. When the device is turned on (either by pressing the button or just inhaling the device), the wire heats up, producing vapor that contains the flavor of the juice and the nicotine. Constant use of this (around an average of 2 weeks or so, depending on the amount of usage) eventually burns the cotton. Instead of buying new organic cotton, the whole pod would have to be discarded and replaced with a new one unless you are okay with the taste of the burnt juice and your throat getting hurt. Now, I find this very, very wasteful because pods are mostly made out of plastic. There are no proper disposals of these pods at the moment, given that the vaping industry is relatively new. Most vape users also either just throw the pod in a random bin or just leave it piling at home because they do not know what to do with it. That is why, for now, we are thinking of putting a bin in smoking areas (particularly Green Court Parking since that’s where most students smoke), collect those pods and find a place where we could bring those pods (i.e. junk shop). I believe that it could still be reused in one way or another because it is only the cotton that is ruined but the pod is made out of plastic and metal. Therefore, it is still in good shape. I also find it very fitting for the DLSU environment given that, just like what i said, most of them use these vape devices now rather than traditional cigarettes. I hope that this idea will pass because it is innovative, timely and fitting. Fingers crossed!