Smoking vs. vaping: What is better for the environment?

The World Health Organization says that passive smoking kills 600,000 people worldwide every year. But second-hand smoke is harmful not only to human beings. Cigarette smoke and butts endanger the environment. In fact, butts are the most commonly littered item, making up from 30 to 40% of all items collected in general coastal and urban cleanups.

Realizing that quitting can benefit the environment can be an additional source of motivation. It goes without saying that breaking this harmful habit is super tricky. Long-term smokers hardly imagine their lives without smoking. That’s why they often choose to vape as an alternative option rather than going cold turkey. Vapers often ask whether vaping is safer for the environment as it is for health. Let’s see.

Why Is Smoking Detrimental to Our Planet?

Regular e cig juice is a better choice than tobacco when it comes to saving the planet. If you smoke, read it carefully how cigarettes damage the environment.

1. It causes deforestation.

Annually, 200,000 hectares of forest are cut to the needs of the tobacco industry. The number is shocking and almost unbelievable.

Wood is used to dry and cure the tobacco plants by fire. It’s also needed for producing paper, filter, and packaging for roughly 5.5 trillions of cigarettes manufactured globally every year.

Why should we care? Trees provide oxygen for humans and animals to survive. Forests also provide homes for animals. Trees absorb carbon dioxide and greenhouse gas. Elimination of forests is one of the leading causes of global warming.

Some interesting statistics. To produce 15 packs of cigarettes one tree is needed.  If you’re a pack-a-day smoker, you could take credit for a saved tree every two weeks if you drop smoking.

2. It leads to desertification.

The tobacco plant is very susceptible to pests and diseases. Pesticides are actively used to maintain its proper growth and health.

Intensive tobacco farming exhausts the soil by taking all the essential nutrients from it. Consequently, the ground can’t be used for cultivation of any plant. Jumping ahead, I’ll mention that vape liquid production doesn’t involve land cultivation with all its grave consequences.

3. It pollutes air, ground, and water.

Do you know that cigarette butts don’t biodegrade naturally? They consist of cellulose acetate, a synthetic fiber that takes up to 12 years to decompose. Millions of butts lie in waterways or on the ground and emit toxins from the filters harming wildlife.

Smokers spew out 5.2 billion kilograms of methane and 2.6 billion kilograms of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each year. This decreases the quality of air and contributes to climate change.

4. It contaminates the animals.

Cigarette smoke contains more than 4,000 chemicals, many of which are toxic. Turtles, some kinds of fish and seabirds happen to ingest cigarette butts along with the poisonous residue which leads to poisoning.

An animal can also end up starving to death. The butt swells in the stomach creating a feeling of false satiation. So, the poor animal stops eating.

5. It leads to fires.

10% of the world’s forest fires are linked to carelessly discarded cigarette butts. That’s a sad statistics. Indeed, the very fact of cigarette smoking is an act of human carelessness.

Is Vaping Dangerous for The Environment?

Vaping is far more environment-friendly then smoking. And here’s why.

1. E-cigs save trees.

There’s no specific information on how many tree-derived products are used in total vaping manufacturing. But it’s clear that paper is only used in packaging. If the majority of smokers quit or switched to vaping, millions of trees would be preserved. It could be an astronomical benefit to people, flora and fauna, and our planet as a whole.

2. Vapers create less waste.

Let’s make a simple estimation. 10 ml of a premium vape juice is equal to 5-7 packs of combustible cigarettes. Every week of vaping, a user needs to dispose of an atomizer head. For a pack-a-day smoker, that would mean 140 cigarette butts – the butts that live for a decade, all the while polluting the environment with harmful chemicals.

To minimize the environmental impact of vaping, choose e-cigs with re-usable components that usually comes with clearomizers or tanks that use replaceable coils and rebuildable atomizers.

Even if you choose a disposable model, you’ll have several vaping sessions with it. Thus the volume of waste will be reduced dramatically.

Of course, there’s some waste left. Cartomizers are replaced. Bottles of e-liquid become empty. And batteries go out.

However, a responsible vaper knows that these things shouldn’t be discarded. E-cig cartomizers, cartridges, and batteries can be recycled. Even if some part of a vape ends up lying somewhere on the ground or floating in water, the toxicity level is a smaller threat to the environment in general.

3. Vapor doesn’t pollute the air so much.

E-cigarettes are marketed as a safer alternative. It’s claimed that users inhale a "harmless water vapor." It’s mostly true. Nicotine is the most toxic ingredient in e-liquids. Other components (PG, VG, and flavorings) are toxic in substantial amounts. So, the quality of air near a vapor is cleaner than near a smoker.

The problem is that the effects of vaping on users and the environment are not deeply researched yet. Some studies report that e-cig vapor is clean of most of the chemicals found in smoke. Others reveal that the vapor in e-cigarette contains almost the same level of potentially dangerous substances as the ambient air we breathe every day when we go outside. Environmental health scientists agree on one thing – vaping is a lesser evil than smoking.

4. Vaping reduces the risks of fires.

A smoldering cigarette butt is a common cause of fires. Since vaping is devoid of combustion, you won’t end up burning down your house if you fall asleep with a vape in your hand.

5. More animals are safe.

Enjoy vape juice flavors, but don’t forget to keep the bottles "away from children and pets," as the label states. Most e-liquids contain nicotine. So, accidental consumption can be hazardous.

The Earth provides us with everything we need for living. In our turn, we should take care of it to keep getting enough.