Ever wondered what the impact on the environment would be if every smoker switched to vaping?
It would be a very different world if smokers did switch to vaping. In fact, it would be a much cleaner environment, even if just a fraction of smokers decided to switch to e-cigarettes.
Vapers are natural recyclers
Vapers unwittingly recycle by using e-cigarettes. Recycling is much more than bottles and paper. Every time a vaper refills their tanks with e-liquid, their device is being recycled. Cigarettes are smoked once and discarded, and not always in a responsible manner. Many cigarette butts end up scattered on the ground, our sidewalks and even our water supply.
Vaping results in less waste
5.5 trillion cigarettes are produced worldwide yearly and according to research about 1.6 billion pounds of cigarette butts end up as litter on an annual basis. You can read the research here. It’s also worth noting that 38% of improperly discarded trash every year is made up of cigarette butts.
To top this astounding statistic, it is estimated that 1.5 million trees are cut down daily to make cigarettes. That’s daily, not yearly.
E-cigarette emissions vs cigarette emissions
Vaping also wins hands down when comparing emissions. Second hand smoke kills close to 50 000 people a year. Thus, not only are smokers endangering their own lives when smoking, they also compromise the lives of those around them. In addition to this the side stream smoke produced are also harmful to the environment.
It was recently estimated that smokers are responsible for as much as 84 878 tons of air pollution annually. That is half of the amount produced by all the cars in the USA. Shocking, isn’t it?
In contrast, e-cigarettes produce no side stream smoke, but rather a vapour that is much less harmful to the environment than cigarettes.
A study published in the British Journal of Medical Practice in 2014 scrutinized the effects of vapour in the environment. It found “the vapour contains nothing like the concentrations of carcinogens and toxins as in cigarette smoke. In fact, toxin concentrations are almost all well below 1/20th than that of cigarette smoke.”
It’s evident that choosing to vape rather than smoke, will have a big impact on the environment in the long run. You won’t only be potentially saving your life, but also preserving the world for future generations.