A free program in Marquette County is making it easy and accessible for people to recycle their used, disposable vapes. 聽The Marquette-based environmental nonprofit, Citizens for a Safe and Clean Lake Superior, has received a grant from the Community Foundation of Marquette County to expand their program to five locations throughout the county.
鈥淎bout a year and a half ago, I started noticing just how many vapes I was seeing out on the sidewalk in my neighborhood. They seemed to be being littered, just like cigarettes. I started looking into the environmental hazards associated with that, because these are devices that contain not only liquid nicotine waste in them, but they also contain a lithium battery. When they鈥檙e littered on the ground, that leaches heavy metals and toxic chemicals into our environment, which is really dangerous for our ecosystems,鈥� said CFSCLS Director Jane Fitkin.
CFSCLS began their pilot recycling program on December 1 of last year, with their only drop-off site being at Kenny鈥檚 Corner Store in downtown Marquette. Over the past year, CFSCLS has collected over 4,000 vapes since they started their recycling program – approximately 400 pounds of vape waste that鈥檚 been kept out of the environment.