From Vape Waste to Sound Waves: A Quirky Look at Lithium Battery Reuse

A group of creators is turning discarded vape devices into quirky musical instruments—highlighting an unexpected battery story hiding in plain sight. While the project is playful, it underscores a real issue in the battery ecosystem: millions of lithium cells are thrown away in single-use electronics despite still having usable life, raising fresh questions about e-waste, reuse, and how we handle small-format batteries at scale.

Transcript

00:00:03 The way we designed these instruments made it sound like a squeaky toy. It makes a really goofy, squeaky sound. I feel like it sounds like a dying robot kazoo. It sounds like

00:00:15 every other synthesizer before you make it fancy. That's a very you answer. This is the vape synthesizer that we made. and we use specifically this version of the vape and we use

00:00:27 all of the parts that originally came from this vape. Basic parts of the circuit are a five, five, five timer. That's sort of like the brains that make it oscillate. However many buttons

00:00:38 we choose to add, wire the buttons. And then we essentially take the battery and just hook up the plus and minus to power the whole thing when we're ready.

00:00:48 It won't turn on until you actually activate the sensor. The goal was to use as much as we could out of vape. That means we're using the original low pressure sensor.

00:00:57 So in order to play this, you actually have to suck rather than blow. Because it's single use, the batteries tend to outlive the use of the device, which means people are throwing away

00:01:07 perfectly good lithium batteries. Lithium is a finite resource. It's hard to procure. It's even harder to recycle. There's actually vapes that don't have a charging circuit.

00:01:17 That's part of the absurdity of the battery situation, is they ship with a charged rechargeable battery, but there's no way to get back in and charge them again. The first time

00:01:26 we presented this, it was through this organization called Open Source Hardware Association. And basically with them we were able to open source this and share the instruction

00:01:37 on how people can make their own vape synthesizer. We are using this project as a call for an action for all the creative reuse and creative salvage, of used electronics.

00:01:47 hacked into it, disconnected element, and, nicotine cartridge. And we're basically using that same design to instead of turning on a heating element,

00:01:47 we're turning on a simple Forest Mimms inspired 555 oscillator, which generates tones and we kind of modded it so the buttons can change the tone. What else? What else was there

00:01:48 do I like about the batteries and how insidious they are? Yeah. So, so, like, the the genesis of the project was, inspired by a conversation between

00:01:48 the three of us about. instruments are fully, like, rechargeable. And the original use of it is that you finish using the nicotine juice and then you throw it away.

00:01:48 And what inspired us to make this salvaged instrument is to, put this back up in the manufacturing chain and give it another life. I'm just going to hold it like this.

00:01:49 Okay. All right. Perfect. Nice. the work in trying to repurpose, salvage and salvage in general. Like, reuse the garbage we have in the United States

00:01:49 and all over the world is not something that's exclusive to us. There's people doing it here in New York City and doing it globally. And they're also people who are doing it from kind of community

00:01:49 action level all the way up to kind of very, prestigious publications and academic journals. So there's ways to activate e-waste and other waste that, can reach any audience. Yes.

00:01:50 That seems to cover this already. But if you say why specifically the art of making something that makes us out rather than any other. Sure. I mean, yeah, I can say that.

00:01:50 Yeah. Why don't we? Yeah. That come to us. It was. So the thing is that people call this an instrument, but it's. We think of it more as a

00:01:50 novelty instrument. It makes a very silly sound. And that's kind of the distinct character of what's happening. And it's because these vapes are pretty absurd. And since we started from kind

00:01:50 of the absurdity of how much e-waste it was generating, we looked at this form factor and knew we wanted it to look like a vape. And when we looked at these vapes,

00:01:51 we thought they looked like ocarina. So the kind of the traditional wind instrument. So that's how the form factor birthed what the project was, and also

00:01:51 how the function and sound would be up there. Well, for goofiness to you, you just want to share your own words. What you think it sounds like. I love that.

00:01:51 Sure. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Am I starting this, though? I think it sounds. Yeah. I think for me, Oh, yeah. nuts. And.

00:01:52 Okay. Yeah. Whenever you're ready. So these are and we use specifically this version of the vape we made, these. This is like a complete, unopened and and we use all of the parts that originally came

00:01:52 from this vape. have some of the basic parts. This is a mouse nuzzle. This is the back of it. It has a charging circuit on it and is connected to a lithium battery. Everything goes

00:01:52 back in here. And normally you will have another, like, nicotine cartridges that you would throw away for this project. And this is the mouthpiece you can see.

00:01:53 And sensors are right here. This is the pressure sensor. The way it works is that on one Direction, if you, suck on it, it creates a low pressure.

00:01:53 And then that temporarily connects the circuit, and one is connected to a heating element. It will extract from the nicotine cartridges. Nice and warm. Let me watch

00:01:53 for the breadboard, too. Yeah, I got to get on board. Do you want to talk about this? For sure. I also paid for. Okay, I know that one place that that's

00:01:53 that's like one of the pressure on this one has a fresh. Has not any. Oh gosh. No I'm just laughing I'm so sorry for you guys. All right. Whenever you're all

00:01:54 ready 123. Okay. Ever. But when does all that. Okay. Like, this is this is a big. Which is,

00:01:54 like, ridiculous. There's probably some small stuff. It's really easy. Actually, it's kind of hard. It's getting hard. Well, it's hard to get the ones we want.

00:01:54 Yeah. Oh, okay. Are specific kinds that you guys. Well, we just use this time, okay? It's the easiest to get into. It has the form factor like.

00:01:54 These ones all have different stuff inside them. Okay. Good. Sure. So here's a pile of discarded vapes. We actually set up a collection box

00:01:55 in our department at NYU, where students who vapes leave their vapes when they're done with them. But we also just put out a call to different communities.

00:01:55 Sometimes people get them off of bi nothing groups in their neighborhood or some places have collection boxes at vape shops or bars, so you can ask them if you can raid their

00:01:55 collection box. That's. Yeah. And you make sure that you say again about how you only use the one kind of stuff. Sure. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

00:01:56 Remember? Yeah. All of our vape scents are made with the elf bar, because it has that ocarina form factor that we like. And also it has the battery, low pressure

00:01:56 sensor and charging circuit that are all good. Yeah. That was a great bit of info at the end. Anything. I think that's pretty much everything specific to.

00:01:56 All right? Yeah. Go for it. Yeah. You want to? What if you just click? Click it? Yeah. Thank you. Yep. Okay,

00:01:56 everybody. Okay, so, after taking all the vapes apart, we prototype the circuit, David Rios, assistant arts professor at Tisch. Carrie Love,

00:01:57 adjunct professor at Tisch IDB. My name is. I'm a ITP alumni. Also teaching ITP. And right now I'm doing my PhD at Cornell University. Shit, I guess I teach at ITP also.

00:01:57 I'm taking probably one. What is it?