A dad has turned disposable vapes he collects from the gutter into rechargeable lanterns that last up to two weeks and portable power banks for his electronic gadgets and musical instruments. Mark Hopgood, 55, a software engineer and musician from Sevenoaks, Kent, managed to charge his iPhone 8 and power his toy keyboard and homemade music machine with the lithium batteries he recovered from old disposable vapes he found on the streets in found the neighborhood. his house.
The father of two now performs using his homemade portable chargers to power his equipment via USB cable and is in the process of building an e-bike that will run on around 80 vape batteries. Mark came up with the idea of making small lanterns after noticing a "bright light" in the gutter, which turned out to be a vapor that had been partially run over and continued to shine for five days after he brought it home.
He hopes his discovery will help people come up with creative ways to reuse and recycle disposable fumes instead of simply throwing them away. However, he warned that it is important to take certain safety measures so that the batteries do not overheat and catch fire. Mark uses a battery management system, a small chip that costs about 10 cents that shuts down the circuit if the battery gets too hot.
About five million single-use vapes are estimated to be thrown away every week in Britain, according to the government, which plans to ban them by the end of next year. "The best thing about it is that you are using a resource that is free and getting some benefit from it before it is actually recycled," he said.
"There's no obvious way to recycle them unless you go to a vape shop. They just seem to appear because people have thrown them onto the street.
"I didn't even know they had nicotine in them - I think that's why they're so addictive."
The story continues
Mark was out for a walk in June 2023 when he saw a 'stash' of discarded fumes, bundled together. "It was like the fairy godmother of vapes had waved a magic wand," he said.
"I immediately saw one lying in the gutter and picked it up. Then I walked a little further and there was a stash of five vapes that had been left on a wall near the bus stop.
At home, Mark got to work, taking apart all the colorful smoking devices one by one. Mark discovered they were powered by some kind of rechargeable lithium-ion battery and had a brainwave.
"If you think about a Tesla, it uses the same type of battery found in big, fat vapes," he said. "So in theory you could power a Tesla with it, but that power could be dangerous because it would heat up."
He started by ordering a battery case, or power bank shell, on Amazon, which he said costs between four and five pounds. He then used a soldering iron to attach the batteries to the case, essentially creating a homemade, rechargeable power bank.
"I took one of these DIY battery packs and plugged the vape batteries into it," he said. "Not only could I charge things with it, but I could also charge it.
"Apparently you can charge them up to 400 times, although I suspect it is more."
Wanting to see "how far he could go" with his new invention, Mark started collecting more discarded vapes around his home, the most common of which is the Strawberry Ice Elf Bar. "Even if they've been run over a little bit, they still seem to work, so they're pretty robust," he said.
"I found at least twenty."
A power bank with five 3.7-volt vape batteries was enough to power Mark's Casio toy keyboard via USB cable, as well as his music machine that he uses to produce a backing track. He first tested the device at an open mic night at The Chambers pub in Folkstone in August 2023, where he regularly plays on the first Wednesday of the month.
"I took it to the events and powered everything," he said. "I played a few songs and people came up to me afterwards and said, 'Oh, that's really cool what you did' - they were really interested."
This got Mark thinking about what other devices he could power with old vape batteries. One evening he was cycling home from the station in Sevenoaks when he saw a "white, bright light".
"It was a very dark evening just before the clocks went back and a bright light shone into the gutter," he said. "So I stopped and it was a vape that had been run over and damaged.
"It was like he thought someone was sucking on it the whole time. I took it home and thought, 'Oh, is this going to blow up because it got run over?'
"I took out the battery and the light stayed on for about five days. I really loved this, I could possibly use this as a lantern."
Mark bought a few extra components that he combined with LED lighting to create 'little lanterns' that can last for several weeks. "It's very mesmerizing in a way because you have a little light and you think, this is something that was released," he said.
"I've had one for two weeks now and it's still running. I don't have a switch on it, it's just always on."
To make the power banks more environmentally friendly, Mark developed a "solar setup" and said they are powerful enough to fully charge his iPhone 8. His "ultimate goal" is to use old vape batteries to power his e-bike, but this is a work in progress.
"My ultimate goal is to power an e-bike with vape batteries, but it's a little more complicated," he said. "I measured how much power you would need and it is quite a lot of cells.
"It's certainly feasible, but you'll need about 80 vapes to make it work."
Mark always carefully calculates how much power is needed to ensure that the batteries do not overheat and catch fire. "If you try to get more power out of them too quickly, they're going to get hot," he said.
He now plans to equip the batteries with a power management system, a small chip that monitors the temperature and how much current flows through them. "They only cost about ten cents," he said. "It measures how much current comes through the battery.
"It's a bit like a fuse: it switches off the circuit and therefore makes it safe. The technology is ubiquitous, almost any piece of technology that contains a rechargeable battery will have a management circuit that turns off [if it gets too hot]."
Buying a brand new battery like those found in disposable vapes normally costs around £2.50 wholesale and they are available retail for up to £6.00. In total, Mark has collected around 40 vapes, but his son Ned, 19, an art student, has collected hundreds for one of his works of art, which he hopes to get his hands on soon.
"You talk to people and they don't know vapes are reusable or can be used for another purpose," he said. "It also gives me a sense of pride because if you want to make things, it's quite easy to put one together once you've practiced soldering a bit."
