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Communities can't recycle or trash disposable e-cigarettes. So what happens to them?_我的网站

一 |     WASHINGTON -- With the growing popularity of disposable e-cigarettes, communities across the U.S. are confronting a new vaping problem: how to safely get rid of millions of small, battery-powered devices that are considered hazardous waste.For years, the debate surrounding vaping largely centered on its risks for high school and middle school students enticed by flavors like gummy bear, lemonade and watermelon.But the recent shift toward e-cigarettes that can’t be refilled has created a new environmental dilemma. The devices, which contain nicotine, lithium and other metals, cannot be reused or recycled. Under federal environmental law, they also aren’t supposed to go in the trash.U.S. teens and adults are buying roughly 12 million disposable vapes per month. With little federal guidance, local officials are finding their own ways to dispose of e-cigarettes collected from schools, colleges, vape shops and other sites.“We are in a really weird regulatory place where there is no legal place to put these and yet we know, every year, tens of millions of disposables are thrown in the trash,” said Yogi Hale Hendlin, a health and environmental researcher at the University of California, San Francisco.In late August, sanitation workers in Monroe County, New York, packed more than 5,500 brightly colored e-cigarettes into 55-gallon steel drums for transport. Their destination? A giant, industrial waste incinerator in northern Arkansas, where they would be melted down.Sending 350 pounds of vapes across the country to be burned into ash may not sound environmentally friendly. But local officials say it’s the only way to keep the nicotine-filled devices out of sewers, waterways and landfills, where their lithium batteries can catch fire.“These are very insidious devices,” said Michael Garland, who directs the county’s environmental services. “They’re a fire risk and they’re certainly an environmental contaminant if not managed properly.”Elsewhere, the disposal process has become both costly and complicated. In New York City, for example, officials are seizing hundreds of thousands of banned vapes from local stores and spending about 85 cents each for disposal.HAZARDOUS WASTEVaping critics say the industry has skirted responsibility for the environmental impact of its products, while federal regulators have failed to force changes that could make vaping components easier to recycle or less wasteful.Among the possible changes: standards requiring that e-cigarettes be reusable or forcing manufacturers to fund collection and recycling programs. New York, California and several other states have so-called extended product responsibility laws for computers and other electronics. But those laws don't cover vaping products and there are no comparable federal requirements for any industry.Environmental Protection Agency rules for hazardous waste don’t apply to households, meaning it's legal for someone to throw e-cigarettes in the garbage at home. But most businesses, schools and government facilities are subject to EPA standards in how they handle harmful chemicals like nicotine, which the EPA considers an “acute hazardous waste," because it can be poisonous at high levels.In the U.S., the push to manage disposable e-cigarettes has chiefly come from schools, which can face stricter regulation if they generate more than a few pounds of hazardous waste per month. Monroe County schools pay $60 to dispose of each one-gallon container of vapes. More than two thirds of the e-cigarettes collected by the county come from schools.“Our schools were very relieved because they had confiscated so much of this material,” Garland said. “If you think of all the high schools across the country, they are in a very difficult place right now.”Lithium in e-cigarette batteries is the same highly sought metal used to power electric vehicles and cellphones. But the quantities used in vaping devices are too small to warrant salvage. And nearly all disposable e-cigarette batteries are soldered into the device, making it impractical to separate them for recycling.Disposable e-cigarettes currently account for about 53% of the multi-billion U.S. vaping market, according to U.S. government figures, more than doubling since 2020.Their rise is a study in unintended consequences.In early 2020, the Food and Drug Administration banned nearly all flavors from reusable e-cigarettes like Juul, the cartridge-based device blamed for sparking a nationwide surge in underage vaping. But the policy didn't apply to disposables, opening the door to thousands of new varieties of fruit and candy-flavored vapes, almost all manufactured in China.In recent months the FDA has begun trying to block imports of several leading disposable brands, including Elf Bar and Esco Bar. Regulators consider them all illegal, but they have been unable to stop their entry to the U.S. and the devices are now ubiquitous in convenience stores, gas stations and other shops. FDA’s tobacco chief, Brian King, said in a statement that his agency “will continue to carefully consider the potential environmental impacts” of vaping products.THE COST OF CONFISCATING DISPOSABLE E-CIGARETTESIn 2020, New York City outlawed the vast majority of e-cigarette types, banning flavors that can appeal to youngsters.City employees conduct thousands of inspections annually, and last year issued more than 2,400 citations to corner stores and bodegas selling illegal flavored products. Adding to the challenge are THC vapes sold at hundreds of unlicensed marijuana shops, a separate but related problem that has mushroomed since New York's legalization of recreational pot.Since last November, officials have seized more than 449,000 vape units, according to city figures. New York City is spending about $1,400 to destroy each container of 1,200 confiscated vapes, but many more remain in city storage lockers. “I don’t think anyone ever considered the volume of these in our community,” said New York Sheriff Anthony Miranda, who leads a task force on the issue. “There’s a tremendous amount of resources going into this effort.” A recent lawsuit against four large vaping distributors aims to recoup some of the city's costs. For now, New Yorkers who vape can bring their used e-cigarettes to city-sponsored waste-collection events.Ultimately those vapes meet a familiar fate: They are shipped to Gum Springs, Arkansas, to be incinerated by Veolia, an international waste management firm. The company has incinerated more than 1.6 million pounds of vaping waste in recent years, mostly unsold inventory or discontinued products.Veolia executives say burning e-cigarettes' lithium batteries can damage their incinerators.“Ideally we don’t want to incinerate them because it has to be done very, very slowly. But if have to, we will,” said Bob Cappadona, who leads the company’s environmental services division.Veolia also handles e-cigarettes from Boulder County, Colorado, one of the only U.S. jurisdictions that actively tries to recycle e-cigarette batteries and components.Historically, Boulder has had one of the highest teen vaping rates in the country, peaking at nearly 33% in 2017. “It was like someone flicked the switch. Suddenly e-cigarettes were everywhere,” said Daniel Ryan, principal of Centaurus High School. Beginning in 2019, county officials began distributing bins to schools for confiscated or discarded e-cigarettes. Last year, they collected 3,500. County staffers sort the devices by type, separating those with removable batteries for recycling. Disposables are packed and shipped to Veolia's incinerator. Shelly Fuller, who directs the program, says managing vape waste has gotten more costly and labor intensive with the shift to disposables.“I kind of miss the days when we had Juuls and I could take each battery out and recycle them very easily,” Fuller said. “No one has time to dismantle a thousand Esco Bars.”___AP video journalist Joseph Frederick contributed to this story from New York___Follow Matthew Perrone on Twitter: @AP_FDAwriter___The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.。

二 |     葵园筑彩梦          童心向未来          中关村一小顺义学校          心理健康节活动                    近期，我校成功举办心理健康日活动，为全校师生及家长带来了一场丰富多彩且意义深远的心灵盛宴。                             一、新体验活动：          幸运转盘开启心灵之旅          活动开始，连廊处的大转盘活动吸引了众多目光。

三 | 嘉宾与孩子们齐聚于此，转动幸运大转盘，收获精美小礼品的同时，也开启了充满惊喜与欢乐的心理健康之旅。

四 | 欢声笑语回荡在连廊之间，为活动营造了轻松愉悦的开场氛围。                   二、心理课展示：          多彩课堂助力心灵探索          随后，针对低、中、高不同年级学生的心理特点与需求，我校精心安排了四节精彩纷呈的心理课程。老师们各展其能，以生动有趣的教学方式引导学生探索自我、感悟成长。         管晓旭老师授课的主题是“我的情绪我做主”，课程通过讲解不同的情绪，如积极情绪和消极情绪，以及如何调节自己的情绪，让学生们了解到情绪的多样性和重要性。

五 | 课程中，老师通过游戏活动、故事分享和实际案例，引导学生们学会识别和调节自己的情绪，从而提升自己的心理健康水平。         刘宇老师以《认识自我，树立自信》为主题，引领孩子们驶向了一场自我认同与欣赏的奇妙旅程，孩子们在欢笑与共鸣中进行了生理我、心理我、社会我多维度的自我探索，学会了欣赏自己的优点，接纳自身的不足，在心中悄然种下了自信的种子。         李楠老师和二年级同学以《我和我的小伙伴》为主题开展了一节心理班会课。课堂活动过程中，李老师根据低年级年龄特点，通过视频，情景表演等方式与孩子们共同探寻与朋友相处的正确方式。气氛活跃的炸弹游戏，让学生在活动中，体会到了成为团结向上的集体所要付出的努力。课后，通过本次活动课，每位同学都能更深刻地了解到日常生活中，如何与朋友相处。         高静老师的《“我语言”的魔法》这一课属于“人际交往”领域，是针对本校五年级学生之间经常出现的口头语言攻击现象而设计的心理健康课。聚焦于同学沟通中的 “如何说”，通过学生喜爱的情境表演体验方式，引导学生体会非暴力沟通带来的积极情感体验，产生友好表达的强烈意愿，从而尝试运用非暴力沟通的有效方法（沟通四要素：观察、感受、需要、请求），在后续学习、生活中，建立良好的人际关系，发展亲社会行为。

六 |          课堂上，学生们积极参与互动，在思考与讨论中对心理健康有了更深入的认识。专家们深入课堂，认真聆听每一节课，并在课后给予专业且细致的点评，为老师们进一步提升心理教学质量提供了宝贵的建议与方向。

七 |                    三、心理健康校园游园会：          趣味项目畅享心灵盛宴          操场上的心理健康校园游园会无疑是本次活动的高潮部分。25 个精心布置的体验项目如繁星般散落操场，孩子们满怀期待地奔赴这片心灵探索的天地。从情绪管理的小测试到团队协作的趣味游戏，每一个项目都是一次心灵的触动。                   1                              2                              3                              4                              5                              6                              7                              8                              9                              10                              11                              12                              13                              14                              15                              10                              11                              16                              17                              18                    值得一提的是，在此次活动中，家长志愿者们也积极参与进来，他们分布在各个项目点，协助老师们维持秩序、引导同学们参与活动，用自己的热情与行动为活动的顺利开展贡献力量。在班级里，同学们还玩起了翻花，那一根根彩色的翻花在同学们手中灵活翻转，变幻出各种花样，不仅锻炼了手部精细动作，也为校园生活增添了一抹传统游戏的乐趣与色彩。                                       在这里，他们勇敢地打开心房，在无拘无束的体验中，逐渐掌握应对压力的技巧，学会自如地调节情绪，自信心也在不经意间得到极大提升，同时还收获了珍贵的团队协作经验与良好的人际关系。                   四、心理工作汇报：          总结回顾共绘心灵蓝图          多功能厅内，一场意义非凡的交流活动拉开帷幕。活动现场嘉宾云集，众多嘉宾的到来，充分彰显了各界对我校心理健康教育工作的大力支持与深切关注。         孙校长的开场致辞如同一束温暖而明亮的光，穿透迷雾，为我们今后的心理健康工作照亮了前行的道路，指引着我们在心灵培育的征程上稳步迈进。         紧接着，德育副校长李颖对学校心理工作进行了全面且详实的汇报，系统回顾了过往工作的斐然成果与宝贵经验，并对未来的发展规划与目标进行了清晰展望，使在场的每一位嘉宾与师生都对学校心理健康工作有了透彻且全面的认知。                             五、心理论坛：          多元交流汇聚心灵智慧          随后的家校社师生论坛更是将交流氛围推向了极致。各方代表汇聚一堂，围绕学生心理健康话题各抒己见。家长们真情吐露家庭教育中的酸甜苦辣，老师们分享教学过程中的深刻洞察与感悟，学生们也大胆说出内心的真实渴望与诉求，社会各界代表则带来全新的视角与丰富资源。专家们的点评切中要害，为论坛的热烈讨论提供了坚实的理论根基与专业实践指导，进一步拓展了大家的思维边界与视野广度。                   六、领导讲话：          指引方向照亮心灵前路          最后，顺义教委体卫艺科心理负责人张娟主任的总结讲话为我们今后的心理健康教育提供了强劲的动力与切实可行的方向指引。其深刻的见解与殷切的期望，如同春风化雨，滋润着我们在心理健康教育这片沃土里持续深耕细作，激励全体师生与家长携手并肩，为学生的心理健康全力以赴，保驾护航。         此次心理健康日活动的成功举办，淋漓尽致地展现了我校对学生心理健康教育的高度重视与笃定信念。展望未来，我校将坚定不移地探索创新心理健康教育模式，全力整合各方优质资源，持续为学生的心灵成长不懈努力，让每一位学子都能于阳光明媚、健康和谐的校园环境中茁壮成长，绽放出独一无二、绚烂夺目的青春光彩。                   撰稿：张奇 陈冠羽                    审核：          摄影：董广清 谢晓军 陈冠羽          审核：李颖 张奇          中关村第一小学顺义学校。

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