Chris Doel, 26, had a simple observation: the vapes marketed as disposable actually contain the same rechargeable lithium-ion batteries as phones and laptops. So he collected 500 of them, stripped out the cells, and built a power wall that now runs his entire home.
The setup is straightforward but effective. Those 500 batteries pack 2.5 kilowatt-hours of energy — enough to keep his lights on, his Wi-Fi running, his laptop charged, and even his kettle boiling for up to eight hours without drawing from the grid. "I'm completely off-grid right now," he told NBC News, speaking through a laptop powered by the very system he'd built.
What makes Doel's project more than just a clever hack is the scale of the problem it exposes. Over a million disposable vapes are thrown away every single day in the UK. In the US, it's around 500,000 daily. Each one contains not just a rechargeable battery, but rare earth minerals that could be recovered and reused. Instead, they end up in landfills or incinerators, their materials lost.
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Start Your News DetoxDoel's work sits in an interesting gap: while regulatory bodies are only now starting to address vape waste as an environmental issue, he's already demonstrating what's possible when you treat discarded electronics as a resource rather than refuse. His next step is more ambitious — he's bought a small electric vehicle and plans to install a reclaimed vape battery pack into it, creating a car powered entirely by what would have otherwise been trash.
There's something quietly powerful about this approach. It doesn't require waiting for policy change or corporate responsibility. It just requires seeing what's already being thrown away and asking: what else could this do? As e-waste becomes an increasingly urgent problem globally, that question might matter more than any regulatory mandate.
