"How might we reduce vape waste and raise awareness about its health and policy impacts?"

Despite New York State’s 2020 ban on flavored vapes, usage has continued to rise—especially among youth. Recent data shows that 1 in 5 high school students reported using a vape in 2024, signaling an escalating public health crisis.

In addition to serious health risks, vape use also creates a growing environmental threat. According to U.S. PIRG, 4.5 disposable vapes are discarded every second. In New York City alone, the Department of Sanitation has collected over 500 tons of vape pens, which are classified as electronic waste. These devices contain plastic, metal, lithium batteries, and highly toxic liquid nicotine—making them hazardous and unsuitable for standard trash disposal.

ROLE

Strategic Design

Stakeholder Research

Strategic Partnerships

Interviews

Graphic Design

Experience Design

Social Media Marketing

PR Strategy

DURATION

Two Months + ongoing

PROCESS

OVERVIEW

To address the ongoing environmental concerns presented by vape devices, I was curious if there might be an intervention possible to reduce the instances of people throwing their vape devices in the trash through behavior change. In order to do this, there were a number of challenges to address:

There isn't currently a city-wide program that collects and recycles vape devices
Most people aren't aware that they can't toss their used vapes in the trash
There is policy banning disposable vapes and directly addresses waste, however enforcement is limited and most aren't aware of the policies
While cigarette use has declined, vaping, especially among young people has skyrocketed, addicting a new generation of nicotine users

To address these issues, there were a number of considerations, including the following:

Who are the stakeholders already working in this space and where are they succeeding and where are they hitting barriers?
What are the challenges and opportunities to foster vape user's behavior change to prevent regular garbage disposal?
What are ways that we may be able to collect and safely dispose of vape devices?
How might we raise awareness about the health and policy challenges around vape use and waste?

CO-DESIGNED PROCESS OUTLINE

1. STAKEHOLDERS

After several months of speaking to a variety of stakeholders, including state representatives, local city council members, DSNY, School Administrators, Nonprofit Organizations, and vape users, it was clear there was a gap around harnessing vapes

2. IDENTIFYING PARTNERS

From stakeholder mapping it was clear that there were a few groups actively working on collecting vape devices. From there, I reached out to speak about collaboration opportunities

4. ACTIVATION

From stakeholder feedback, the hypothesis was to organize ongoing popup collection events, to accomplish the goal of raising awareness, engaging vape users and collecting devices to be properly disposed of

5. MARKETING

Through a robust marketing strategy, including physical posters with QR codes, press, a radio interview, and social media posts, we were able communicate the issues of vape use, as well as provide a solution for waste with the recycle event

3. VAPE USERS

While speaking with vape users, overwhelmingly, they said either they didn't know there was a issue tossing their used vapes, or if they were concerned, they didn't know where or how to properly dispose of them

6. FIRST EVENT

Leveraging our first event, we were able to interact with people passing by, as well as people who showed up to drop off their vapes. These interactions provided IRL feedback where we were able to ask people about their vape use, how they heard about the event and if they were interested in ongoing engagement