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Guy makes “dodgy e-bike” from 130 used vapes to make point about e-waste (arstechnica.com)

submitted 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Disposable vapes are indefensible. Many, or maybe most, of them contain rechargeable lithium-ion batteries, but manufacturers prefer to sell new ones. More than 260 million vape batteries are estimated to enter the trash stream every year in the UK alone. Vapers and vape makers are simply leaving an e-waste epidemic to the planet's future residents to sort out.

To make a point about how wasteful this practice is—and to also make a pretty rad project and video—Chris Doel took 130 disposable vape batteries (the bigger "3,500 puff" types with model 20400 cells) found littered at a music festival and converted them into a 48-volt, 1,500-watt e-bike battery, one that powered an e-bike with almost no pedaling more than 20 miles. You can see the whole build and watch Doel zoom along trails on his YouTube video.

Not the first Brit to do that this year as a chap in Kent made the news in June.

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago

https://youtu.be/VcVp9T8f_W4?si=3FaY4W5A9m_5KBAt

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 week ago

I collect them to pull the battery out of.

I've got a bunch of rc pieces I'll probably never need due to simply not needing all 20 cables or whatever in the pack. So all my leftover jst connectors go to "old" lithium batteries, and I use them as little power banks for my phone, and arduino stuff.

They typically don't last too long, and range between 200-1000mah, but it's something that isn't "taking up space in a landfill or being crushed and setting something on fire"

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Kudos to him. But the title is misleading - he didn't build an e-bike, he built a battery pack/kit. Reading the title and looking at the picture I thought that he melted the plastic to mold it into a bike frame...

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 week ago

Well, the e-vapes casing are made of aluminum, so maybe you can melt them into a bike frame !

[–] [email protected] 29 points 1 week ago

It's hardly dodgy. He tested and charged each cell to the correct capacity before wiring it up. He 3D printed an interlocking battery holder. He even installed a BMS with a temp sensor.

Dude's build is significantly better than some of the shit China is trying to sell on Amazon.

You gotta give credit where credit is due.