Maija Ellis sits on her balcony to vape from a Vuse e-cigarette, available at both gas stations and smoke shops. Vaping is a form of nicotine consumption where an aerosol containing nicotine, flavouring, and chemicals is heated to produce vapour. A report from the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse states there are over 490 brands of e-cigarettes on the market.
Originally, my take on the theme of consumption was to examine popular forms of nicotine consumption. I was curious whether patterns of consumption were changing as a result of the Canadian government’s decision to ban nicotine products over 20mg/mL. Prior to early July, 2021, most commercial e-cigarettes, pods, and liquids were sold at up to 50mg/mL. I wanted to do a story that focussed on vaping because of my background in the restaurant/bar industry where nicotine consumption is so normalized. Over this last summer, vaping had become so commonplace that around 70 per cent of my coworkers brought their device into work. When news came of the 20mg/mL nicotine ban, the staff organized car-pools to the nearest town with a vape shop and some purchased up to $300 of product per person.
Ellis, 29, started vaping to quit smoking tobacco, but was quickly pulled in by the novel flavour element to vaping. "I love nicotine, I also love fruit. Can't go wrong," says Ellis. StatCan reports that regular vape users over twenty-five generally vape to quit smoking, while those under tend to vape for other reasons such as flavouring, to perform tricks with the vapour, etc.
To me, vaping is so emblematic of consumption and consumerism because these products are meant to be purchased routinely, and consumed quickly. The product has so much control over the consumer. Further, it’s always interested me that vaping has strayed so far from its original purpose of helping people quit nicotine addictions and through pop culture has turned into something flashy and recreational.
This Carleton student vaped for fun in her first year, but recently started vaping again in her fourth to quit smoking poppers, where tobacco from a cigarette is combined with weed and smoked out of a bong. Prior to vaping, she smoked up to ten poppers a day.
In early July, the Canadian government set a limit of 20mg/mL of nicotine in vape products on the Canadian market. Vaping can produce a head-rush, or "buzz", typically when products contain 50mg/mL nicotine or over. StatCan reported this as one of vaping's most attractive qualities to younger populations.
After a week or so of planning, I began to notice how much waste was produced by vaping. Each vape pod is made of plastic, contained in plastic, and then packaged for sale in up to two layers of cardboard. Generally, there are two or three pods to a pack. Vaporizer devices on the Canadian market can be rechargeable, with a lifespan of around a year, or “disposable”, with a lifespan of approximately 200 to 1,000 puffs. This expanded my understanding of consumption for this project to include the rampant consumer consumption of plastics by those who vape.
Ellis tries her best to use other people's devices instead of having one of her own around to tempt her, she says. Still, disposable vapes (which have only a certain amount of puffs before the battery dies) and Juul brand devices litter her coffee table.
Another two e-cigarettes sit on the window ledge of Ellis's balcony. Vape waste is considered hazardous, but there is no standardized method to dispose of vape products and providing instruction falls to municipal governments. The city of Toronto and municipality of Peel require vape products to be safely disposed of at a waste centre, for example, whereas Calgary asks they be thrown in with the household garbage.
My favourite part of the assignment was assembling the litter I collected from my subjects (which included a grand total of five vape devices from Ellis's collection) to visually demonstrate how quickly vape products can pile up. This gave me space to be creative, as I had to decide the most impactful way to display the garbage. What's shocking is that this litter is only what hadn't already been thrown away.
This litter was collected from only three households. Across all brands, each nicotine pod (to be inserted into a rechargeable device) comes packaged individually in plastic and contained in a cardboard box.
The city of Toronto and municipality of Peel require vape products to be safely disposed of at a waste centre, whereas Calgary asks they be thrown in with the household garbage. Ottawa has no by-law addressing vape disposal. The popular e-cigarette brand STLTH recently started a recycling program where used pods can be returned to drop off locations to be sorted and shipped to a recycler.
In the span of one day, researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, found 172 pieces of vape waste in ten high school parking lots across the Bay Area. Unfortunately, due to the relatively sudden boom in vaping's popularity, there are few studies to draw from regarding the impacts of vape waste.
Assembling the various pods, boxes, and vape bodies into a mosaic felt like an arts and crafts project and I was able to play around with aperture to bring attention to, or blur certain aspects of the mosaic. It turned into a beast of its own; I actually assembled the mosaic twice and photographed it on two separate days. When I reviewed the photos from my first attempt I kept wishing I could change small details of the layout to make the mosaic more visually appealing.
Ellis lights up a cigarette while a disposable vape sits on the patio table in front of her. "I started because I was trying to quit cigarettes," she says with a shrug, "now I do both".