With a large number of disposable vapes on a table before them, members of the local environmental non-profit Citizens for a Safe & Clean Lake Superior are pictured. They are, from left, Alex Berrones, student intern from Northern Michigan University, Jane Fitkin, organization director and Sierra Bentti, a volunteer. (Photo courtesy of the Citizens for a Safe & Clean Lake Superior)

MARQUETTE — A Marquette-based non-profit is leading an effort to reduce the amount of e-cigarette waste that typically ends up in the environment where it has the ability to pollute soil, ground and surface water.

In fact, Citizens for a Safe & Clean Lake Superior is expanding an existing program after one year of collections at a single pilot site, which has seen over 4,000 vapes returned for recycling, according to Jane Fitkin, organization director. This new effort was effective Dec. 1.

“They are super hazardous,” Fitkin said of the disposable vapes. “They contain … a lithium battery, which leaches heavy metals when littered and can cause landfill fires when thrown in the trash. Along with the leftover liquid nicotine concentrate, a hazardous substance, e-cigarettes pose significant environmental impacts when improperly disposed of.”

For the past year, Fitkin’s group stationed a collection point at Kenny’s Corner Store in downtown Marquette. Some 4,000 disposable vapes were dropped off at that one point alone, she said. Now, vape drop-off containers are situated at Circle K convenience stores along U.S. 41 in Harvey, Marquette, Negaunee and Ishpeming. Marquette County residents are encouraged to deposit empty, used nicotine vapes in the containers so they can be properly disposed of and have their internal batteries recycled.

Fitkin noted that the program is presently limited to collecting only nicotine vapes, but there are plans in the near future to expand to used cannabis vapes at separate locations. Cannabis vapes, she said, pose many of the same environmental threats as nicotine vapes but regulation of cannabis as a controlled substance complicates where and how they’re able to be collected. Local dispensary The Fire Station Cannabis Company is sponsoring the group’s efforts to expand the program to cannabis vape collection and the two entities are hopeful about finding a solution, she said.

Vapes collected through the recycling program are consolidated and prepared for recycling by volunteers at bimonthly “Tape the Vapes” events. Then, the vape waste is brought to Recycle 906, which gathers and sends bulk amounts of collected vapes to a battery recycling center.

Bud Sargent can be reached at 906-228-2500, extension 544. His email address is bsargent@miningjournal.net.