Environmental Sustainability
Thinking 'bout THR Aug 15-22, 2025
Circular Vape Recycle
Hello Everyone!
I’ve been away from newsletter work to focus my attention on a special project that had a deadline. I didn’t have time to write an essay for the newsletter. Aylen has graciously offered to fill in for me and tell you about the project she’s been involved with. Thank you, Aylen!
~ Skip
Vaping, Harm Reduction, and Environmental Sustainability: Towards an Ethical and Responsible Vision: A reflection based on experience and research on how tobacco harm reduction can go hand in hand with responsible waste management and the circular economy.
Aylen Van Isseldyk is an activist and expert in the field of vaping, originally from Argentina, known for her work in tobacco harm reduction and environmental sustainability. She is the founder of Circular Vape Recycle, a global research project that studies the environmental impact of vaping devices, integrating perspectives from bioethics, harm reduction, and the circular economy. Her study, titled “Environmental Impact of Vaping Devices: A Global Approach to Sustainability”, analyzes the waste generated by these devices, recycling challenges (such as plastics and lithium batteries), and proposes sustainable solutions, such as rechargeable systems and recycling programs like "Green Station". It is available on SSRN: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5287029
Additionally, Aylen is a Technician in Advertising and Marketing Analysis, and was a Community Manager and correspondent for a non-governmental organization that advocated for user rights from 2020 to 2024, where she advocated for the rights of vaping device users in Argentina. She has participated in international events such as the Global Forum on Nicotine (GFN) for four years, Smoke Free Sweden, Somos Innovation among others, sharing knowledge on tobacco harm reduction. She also taught workshops, such as "ReduVape", to train in these areas and educate future activists.
In her work, she combines science, sustainability, and advocacy for the rights of vaping users, highlighting the importance of proper waste management to minimize environmental impact.
Introduction: A Synthesis of Experience and Evidence.
Vaping has emerged as an alternative to traditional tobacco with the potential for harm reduction. However, the growth of this sector has brought a key challenge to the forefront: the environmental management of waste generated by these devices, especially disposable and short-lived variants. My journey as an activist, researcher, and founder of Circular Vape Recycle has led me to assert that individual health should not be separated from the health of the planet. Sustainability must be an umbrella that inspires innovation, bioethics, and shared responsibility among manufacturers, regulators, and consumers. This article proposes a course of action based on evidence and ethical principles to align harm reduction with a circular economy.
Conceptual context: harm reduction and environmental responsibility.
Harm reduction in the field of smoking has traditionally been interpreted from the perspective of individual health. Today we know that environmental sustainability is inseparable from that vision: a product that helps people quit smoking can generate complex waste that requires innovative recycling and design solutions. Within this framework, environmental ethics and bioethics acquire a central role: harm reduction must be responsible and equitable, preventing certain consumption patterns or certain countries from bearing waste overflows without adequate infrastructure. The convergence between health, innovation, and collective responsibility must guide product and policy development.
Contribution of Circular Vape Recycle: vision, scope, and relevance.
Circular Vape Recycle was born as a research and advocacy initiative to reduce the environmental impact of vaping through a global circular economy approach. The project aims to promote responsible consumption and recycling habits, conduct international surveys, and disseminate best practices in various forums and platforms. Its relevance lies in closing the gap between harm reduction and sustainable electronic waste management: it demonstrates that it is possible to advance with high environmental impact solutions without sacrificing the health benefits offered by vaping.
Data and Evidence Perspective: Key Findings.
Vaping generates significant waste: plastics that are difficult to degrade, lithium batteries, and electronic components that require specialized treatment. Without proper management, this waste can contribute to soil and water pollution and fire risks in landfills.
There is a gap between awareness and action: a considerable proportion of users recognize environmental risks, but adequate recycling infrastructure and incentives are not always available.
The circular economy offers clear incentives: return and recycling systems, more sustainable materials, and designs oriented towards reuse can significantly reduce environmental impact.
Environmental education is crucial: informative campaigns and educational tools raise recycling rates and promote responsible behaviors.
Strategies for Real and Scalable Sustainability.
1) Design and Circular Economy.
Promote reusable devices and rechargeable modules or those with replaceable batteries.
Encourage the use of biodegradable or easily recyclable materials and facilitate the return of components at the end of their useful life.
Incentivize designs that allow for the reprocessing of lithium and other critical materials for new batteries and products.
2) Waste management models inspired by international best practices.
Deposit-return systems (pfand) to promote the return of devices and raw materials.
Specialized recycling centers that manage lithium batteries, plastics, and electronics, with high recovery rates.
Take-back programs at retailers and digital platforms that facilitate recycling logistics.
3) Bioethics and equity.
Integrate bioethical criteria into product design and public policies, preventing the benefit of harm reduction from being overshadowed by disproportionate impacts on vulnerable communities.
Ensure that regulations and recycling initiatives benefit developing countries and reduce polluting material extraction in vulnerable regions.
4) Education and citizen participation.
Develop educational campaigns that explain not only the risks, but also the opportunities for recycling and reuse.
Use digital tools (apps, clear labels, guides for locating recycling points) to facilitate user participation.
Promote alliances between manufacturers, governments, and communities to sustain a culture of responsible consumption.
Results and projection.
Positive environmental impact with adequate practices: when recycling and circular design systems are applied, it is possible to reduce waste generation, decrease the demand for virgin resources, and mitigate pollution associated with batteries, plastics, and electronic components.
Improvement of public health through an integrated vision: the reduction of harm from smoking is enhanced when environmental management supports responsible practices, generating a virtuous circle of social and environmental well-being.
Trajectory of sustainable innovation: innovations in recycling, waste management, and product design create opportunities for the circular economy, generate jobs, and strengthen corporate responsibility.
Conclusion: an invitation to collective action.
Experience and evidence converge on a clear conclusion: vaping can be part of a positive transformation for health and the environment if we move towards real sustainability. Circular Vape Recycle proposes an ethical and practical framework to achieve this: let's educate, innovate, and recycle. Change begins with each actor: manufacturers who prioritize circularity, governments that implement effective policies, and consumers who opt for responsible products and practices. Together we can build a future where harm reduction and environmental protection do not compete with each other, but complement each other.
Final notes on trajectory and commitment.
My trajectory combines marketing, science, and advocacy for vaping users, with an explicit recognition of the need for proper waste management to minimize environmental impact. The path towards a more sustainable industry demands collaboration, transparency, and policies that drive responsible innovation. Circular Vape Recycle represents an integrated vision: reducing harm, promoting health, and protecting the natural environment for present and future generations.
Acknowledgement:
I deeply appreciate the THRSP Tobacco Harm Reduction Scholarship Program, whose support has been fundamental to this research project. Thanks to it, I have been able to develop innovative research and solutions to reduce the harms of smoking, as well as access quality resources and materials, advancing goals that would be unattainable without their help. I hope the results reflect the positive impact generated by this scholarship.
~ Aylen Van Isseldyk: Founder of Circular Vape Recycle, Author of the research "ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT OF VAPE DEVICES: A GLOBAL APPROACH TO SUSTAINABILITY"
Until next time…
P.S.: Sometimes the only way to achieve a goal is to stare fear right in the eye, bare your soul to others, and ask for help. #StrongerTogether
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Battling unregulated vapes, Big Tobacco tries a new strategy: joining in. “BAT acquired the device in April, but its previous owner applied for an FDA licence in 2022. That application has been pending long beyond the agency's 180-day mandate for reaching a decision.”
August 2025: Altria announced the launch of on! PLUS nicotine pouches in the U.S. “Altria announced the launch on! PLUS without receiving marketing authorization from the U.S. FDA. In June 2024, Helix subsidiary submitted a Premarket Tobacco Product Application (PMTA) to the FDA, comprising over 25,000 pages of scientific and regulatory documentation prepared by a team of more than 50 experts. Altria stated that they have met the requirements under the Tobacco Control Act and proactively notified the FDA of intent to launch. However, the FDA’s review timelines have extended far beyond the 180-day statutory requirement. Thereby, Altria believes that they have complied with all regulatory requirements to bring on! PLUS to market – disclosing ingredients, opening facilities for inspection, and submitting marketing materials for review.”
U.S. Physicians’ Views on E-Cigarette Risks and Benefits to Adults Who Smoke Versus Young People Who Do Not Smoke. “The findings show that physicians attribute greater ethical priority to protecting young people than to reducing risk to adults. Improved education on the risks versus benefits of E-cigarettes may assist physicians in making appropriate recommendations depending on patients' needs.”
The State of Academic Research on Nicotine, Part 2. “In Part 1 of this series, I described how the academic research on nicotine/tobacco is both highly polarized and hostile and plagued by pervasive (but preventable to an extent) flaws. Here in Part 2, I discuss how the research got to this state, from the perspective of academic research incentives.”
CoSTED. “A British clinical trial set out to answer an unlikely question: Can a vaping kit, handed out in a hospital waiting room, save lives and public money?”
New study finds vaping predicts smoking. “Sigh. Another day, another headline screaming that vaping is doing untold damage to our young people. Today, it’s that vaping is a gateway drug in to smoking. According to many articles (eg here and here), UK teens who vaped in 2018 are more likely to go on to take up smoking. Except, that’s not what the study these articles are citing actually found.”
Misleading by design: experts slam Daily Mail for exaggerating youth vaping harms.
Why nobody studies public health errors. “The lack of research on this topic may also be because no single discipline is dedicated to studying public health errors. The field is inherently interdisciplinary, and academics are often not great at learning from or engaging with other disciplines. To understand public health errors better, you need to stay open and draw on knowledge from many fields.”
Supreme Court Lets Trump Administration Cut N.I.H. Grants for Disfavored Research. “The court’s order was fractured, with the justices splitting over whether individual cancellations and the policy behind them could be challenged in a federal trial court.”
DRUG MYTHS Part 2: Drugs, drugs, and more drugs (and nicotine). “The persistent and progressive negative messages about smoking (the behaviour) have created stigma against those who smoke (the sinners). This spills over into health care, where victims of diseases commonly due to smoking (like lung cancer and COPD) are “blamed” for their illness in a way that other cancer victims (breast cancer, for example) might not be. Even non-smokers with lung cancer experience stigma!”
Moe Hamade - The Harsh Reality of Launching a New E-Cigarette in the U.S. “Most people think the biggest challenge in bringing a new vape device to the U.S. is passing the FDA’s Premarket Tobacco Application (PMTA) process. And yes, PMTA is grueling — but it’s only half the battle. The other half? Navigating the patent minefield built and aggressively defended by Big Tobacco and the largest manufacturers in the industry.”
Lance Churchill - “Although the FDA issued a press release today about giving an MDO to Fontem US, LLC for it's Blu disposable tobacco e-cig, the FDA didn't deem it worthy to mention that it ALSO issued MDOs to four other small U.S. based e-cig companies.” (See FDA Press release here.)
Julie (Thread) “The second nicotine education session was held on Friday, and due to increased interest, we had to use a larger room. The feedback forms were positive, although it remains to be seen if this reflects genuine understanding or a reluctance to admit previous misconceptions…”
RFK Jr. calls pouches ‘safest way to consume nicotine’ “I think the nicotine pouches are probably the safest way to consume nicotine,” Mr. Kennedy said in a July 30 interview posted on YouTube. “Vapes are second. But the thing we really want to get away from are cigarettes.”
The Divide Between Science and Public Health Policy. “Bridging the divide between science and public health policy requires more than new evidence; it demands a shift in the incentives, norms, and power structures that underlie policy formation.”
EU Plan to Heavily Tax Safer Substitutes for Cigarettes Draws Fire. “Tobacco harm reduction advocates and scientists are among the opponents of a measure they say will hamper efforts to reduce smoking. And their hopes have been boosted by individual countries raising objections—when all 27 EU nations would need to agree on the proposal.”
Banning Online Sales of Nicotine Pouches Is a Disaster for Rural America. “This is not about children ordering candy-flavored tobacco from TikTok. It is about adult smokers in underserved areas of the country trying to access products that could save their lives.”
I Thought I Was Nicotine Free — Until I Felt Myself Being Pulled Back! “I thought quitting nicotine would feel like a celebration—like stepping onto dry land after years at sea. And in some ways, it did. The ground was steady. My lungs started clearing. I could breathe without reaching for my asthma inhaler every few hours. But I didn’t expect the loneliness. Most of my friends and family were smokers. My quitting felt like a betrayal. Their silence wasn’t angry—it was worse. It made me want to rejoin them. To belong again. Even though I knew what it was costing me.”
Anuzis: Nicotine drop in youth a public health win, but adults left behind. “This win, however, has come at a cost, as there are still nearly 30 million adult smokers in the United States and cigarette smoking remains the leading cause of preventable disease and death in the country. According to a JAMA Health Forum publication which analyzed data on adult smoking behaviors from 2011–2022, the prevalence of smoking habits decreased in every age bracket except one: the 65-and-up crowd. The data also showed that while the prevalence of regular smokers dropped to 15.2%, down from 21.2% in a little over a decade for the middle-aged group, older adults saw an increase from 8.7% to 9.4% in the same time frame.”
Singapore vaping ban escalates into drug-level crackdown. “Prime Minister Lawrence Wong announced in his National Day Rally 2025 speech that Singapore will treat vaping as a drug issue. The move brings tougher anti-vaping laws, including jail sentences, higher fines, and mandatory rehab for offenders. Enforcement has already seized more than 280 illegal vapes, many of them Kpods laced with etomidate (Channel News Asia, August 17, 2025).”
Indian Doctors Join Call to End the Country’s Vape Ban. “The doctors have courageously taken this position despite AIIMS’ official and unwavering support for the ban. In an August 10 press release, AIIMS stated: “The All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, issues this clarification in response to media reports referencing an opinion on Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems by two doctors from AlIMS, New Delhi. We clearly reiterate this institutes’ clear and long-standing position opposing any form of tobacco and nicotine use, including e-cigarettes.”
The Haypp Pitch: The Only Pure-Play Nicotine Pouch Stock. “But the real secret sauce is the Media & Insights (M&I) business. Every purchase tells a story: which flavors convert, which brand designs get re-ordered, which price points move demand. Haypp sits on a treasure trove of this data; and monetizes it. For consumers, it means better recommendations. For suppliers, it means product insights they can’t get anywhere else. For regulators, it means transparency.”
The World Conference on Tobacco Control’s Harmful Hypocrisy. “In an insightful and quietly devastating editorial in Nicotine & Tobacco Research, Dr. Caitlin Notley of the University of East Anglia offers a first-hand account of the 2025 World Conference on Tobacco Control in Dublin. What she describes is not a celebration of evidence-led progress, but a conference riddled with contradictions, intellectual confusion, and a disturbingly narrow public health mindset.”
More News: Vapers Digest Aug 15, Aug 18, Aug 20, Aug 22.
Evidence, not fear, should guide the FDA’s vaping policies. “In a recent appearance on Politico’s The Conversation podcast, Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Marty Makary stressed the importance of building stakeholder consensus and incorporating broad input on policy issues, while grounding decisions in evidence. Yet, in the same discussion, he described a “child vaping epidemic” and signaled plans for increased supply controls…Why weren’t the needs of adult smokers mentioned in this interview?”
Filed 08/21/25 - Plaintiffs NJOY, LLC, Acadia Wholesale and Tobacco Company, Inc., d/b/a Church Point Wholesale, Shop Rite, Inc., and Tobacco Plus, Inc. vs US FDA…(MDO - flavors).
WHO’s war on FDA: Science or sour grapes over US cuts? “Roa’s remarks betray the very mission of the WHO and the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control treaty. If the global public health community truly wishes to reduce the burden of smoking, it must start by respecting the integrity of scientific bodies like the FDA, embracing credible evidence wherever it originates, and recognizing that harm reduction is not a threat — it’s an opportunity.”
Blanket tobacco bans create space for criminal enterprise. “Illegal tobacco and nicotine products in Canada pose public health risks due to absent age verification, tampered vapes, and lack of quality control and safety regulations.”
California Attorney General Bonta Joins Bipartisan Letter to CDC and HHS Supporting Continuation of National Youth Tobacco Survey That Assesses Smoking and Vaping Among Middle and High School Students. “Tobacco control efforts have long been a bipartisan priority, particularly when those efforts concern our youth, and rightfully so. Unfortunately, the Trump Administration has taken several actions that threaten to undo the progress we have made, such as eliminating the Office on Smoking and Health at the CDC.”
Final thoughts…
Thank you, Laura Leigh, Mike, Joe, Sally, Dave, Ray, Allison, Cliff, Scott, Annie, Aaron, Will, Diane, Phillip, Jeff, Janine, Jaron, and others. Your efforts to help me and support me while I completed a very special project are much appreciated.
Notes:
I create these newsletters as a personal project. They are not affiliated with any current or past employers or groups with which I volunteer. I receive no financial compensation for my efforts to create these newsletters. Thank you to those who have offered to fund this project and compensate me for my time. This is my gift to people who are interested in nicotine. Community service is important to me. Volunteering is something I have done since I was a child.
My blog, Skip's Corner, has an X/Twitter account.
My personal accounts are on BlueSky, LinkedIn, and X (Twitter).
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