Michigan regulators are proposing a major policy shift that would allow cannabis businesses to collect and recycle used vape products, a much-needed step toward reducing the environmental hazards of disposable vaporizers.
Under a new rule proposed by the state’s Cannabis Regulatory Agency (CRA), licensed cannabis businesses could accept spent vape cartridges and recycle them, as long as they first dispose of any remaining “perceptible” marijuana concentrate.
“A licensee may receive used vape cartridges and recycle the cartridges if the licensee disposes of perceptible marihuana waste inside the cartridges before recycling the cartridges,” the proposed rule states.
If adopted, Michigan would become one of the first states to explicitly authorize cannabis businesses to recycle vape products, a move that could help address the growing number of toxic lithium batteries, plastic, and electronics ending up in landfills.
“The industry brought up protecting the planet and the viability of recycling these vape materials during the two years in which we used to construct our new rules,” CRA Executive Director Brian Hanna tells Metro Times. “We listened. And we put in a rule proposal to allow businesses to recycle vape products.”
But the CRA’s proposed rule change may need some modifications. Cannabis vape cartridges and all-in-one-vapes may look similar, but there’s a key difference. Cartridges are small glass containers prefilled with cannabis oil that screw onto a reusable battery. When the oil runs out, the cartridge is discarded, but the battery can be recharged and reused with a new cartridge.
All-in-one vapes, on the other hand, combine the oil and battery into a single, disposable unit. There’s no reusing the battery or refilling the tank. Once it’s empty, it’s trashed.
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