How to get rid of a vape in Ohio (legally)
Trash is out, the curbside bin is out, and the library battery barrel won’t take it either. Here’s what Ohio and Mahoning County actually allow.
Why a dead vape can still start a fire
The battery in a spent disposable isn’t empty. Crush it and the chemistry takes over.
What happens to your vape after the bin
From the slot in a Youngstown smoke shop to recovered lithium and copper. A walk through the route.
Fire risk in the Valley: what the numbers say
Facility fires across North America hit a record in 2025, and scrap yards are trending the wrong way. That matters in a steel town.
Youth vaping is falling. The waste isn’t.
Fewer students vape than at any point in a decade. Disposables still dominate what they use, and schools are left holding the devices.
How to run a vape collection drive
A one-day drive at a campus, bar or church can pull hundreds of devices out of the trash stream. Here’s the playbook.
The mine inside your vape
A disposable holds a fraction of a gram of lithium. Multiply by 178 million and you get a mine’s worth of material in the trash.
Ohio’s flavor-ban fight, explained
Columbus banned flavored tobacco. The state banned the ban. Three courts later, the case sits with the Ohio Supreme Court.
What the UK’s disposable ban teaches us
Britain outlawed single-use vapes in June 2025. Nine months later, 6.3 million vapes a week still hit the bin.