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

一 |     为改进环境影响评价工作，建议加强前期评价的全面性和准确性，建立后期评价的制度安排和资金支持机制，确保项目完成后能够进行必要的后评价，并加强环境评价的科学性和公正性。　　环境影响评价作为环境管理的重要环节，是建立在环境监测技术、污染物扩散规律、环境质量对人体健康影响、自然界自净能力等基础上发展而来的一门科学技术，其功能包括判断功能、预测功能、选择功能和导向功能，重要性不容忽视。它不仅仅是对环境现状的一种描述，更是对未来环境发展趋势的一种预测和评估。    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.。如今，距离国家《环境影响评价法》的全面施行已有20年，不可否认的是，     部分相关法律法规已严重滞后。　　目标 通过不断改进评价方法和加强社会监督，可以更好地保护环境，确保可持续发展。摄影/宁颖　　如何做好环境影响评价　　环境影响评价分为施工前和施工后，然而，目前无论是前评价还是后评价，想做好环境影响评价难度巨大。

二 | 中国生物多样性保护与绿色发展基金会(下文简称绿会)副理事长兼秘书长周晋峰分析称，首先，前期评价往往缺乏全面性和准确性，导致后期工作难以顺利开展。而且大量的评价工作都是基于预估和假设进行的，缺乏足够的事实和实际数据。其次，后期评价往往没有得到足够的重视，缺乏必要的制度安排和资金支持。这导致很多项目在完成后没有进行必要的后评价，无法及时发现和纠正存在的问题。

三 | 　　如何改变这一现状？周晋峰指出，需要从现在做起，认真严格地进行环境影响后评价。环境影响后评价的方式不仅可以弥补项目本身前期评价的不足，还揭示出大量事实、数据和结果，价值是巨大的，为指导未来其他项目施工前、后的环境影响评价工作奠定了基础。就如同摔了一跤后爬起来、总结经验一样，失败是成功之母，只有通过失败才能不断成长。“环境后评价不仅仅是一种事后的举措，它有着很多可行的补救方案。如果在完成一项工作之后不进行评估和总结，就像不去检查考试或者作业一样，我们的表现很难得到改善。因此，对于对环境有重大影响的项目，后评价工作至关重要。”周晋峰告诉《小康》杂志、中国小康网记者。　　事实上，对于环境影响的后评价以及随后的追责和改进是非常必要的。在进行环境影响评价时，需要考虑到可能产生的影响、解决方案以及后续实际情况。

四 | 这种持续的评价和改进是必不可少的，因为大型工程很难完全不对环境造成影响。

五 | 通过不断总结经验，可以提高对事物的认识，为未来的工作提供借鉴。环境影响评价是一项复杂而重要的工作，国际上，一些国家对于环境影响的后评价有明确的规定，这种制度安排更有助于公正评价工程的影响。全球范围内，社会力量在推动后评价工作方面起着关键作用。通过不断改进评价方法和加强社会监督，可以更好地保护环境，确保可持续发展。

六 | 　　在国内，环境影响的后评价做得相对较好的项目并不多见，但也有地方政府和相关机构在默默努力。今年3月，江西省九江市采砂管理局发布了《江西省鄱阳湖采砂规划（2024~2028年）环境影响评价报告第一次信息公示》，并公开向社会征集意见。湖泊底层的砂砾层是湖泊湿地生态系统的重要组成部分，不仅关涉到湖泊底栖生物的生存与迁移，还与鄱阳湖每年丰水期与枯水期不同时期的沿岸植物、以及很多迁徙候鸟相关。本次环评公示在采砂作业规划范围内外的群众或村委、企事业单位等社会团体均可参与，具有重要意义。　　为了改进环境影响评价工作，周晋峰建议从多个方面入手。首先，加强前期评价的全面性和准确性，充分考虑各种可能的环境影响因素。其次，建立后期评价的制度安排和资金支持机制，确保项目完成后能够进行必要的后评价。此外，还需要加强环境评价的科学性和公正性，避免出现似是而非的结论和荒唐的做法。在进行环境评价时，需要第三方科学公正地参与，这样才能得出客观的结论。科学需要实践性、公开争辩和批驳性，而非漫无目的。缺乏科学性的做法会导致认识变得荒谬。因此，有必要对环境影响进行全面的评价，以便在未来的工作中作出更好的规划。　　三峡工程后环境影响评价　　作为国之重器、世界最大规模的水利枢纽工程，三峡工程已全面建成并运行了15年，且已对现阶段落实《长江保护法》形成现实困扰，由此，在今年两会前夕，绿会研究室再次提出《尽快开展三峡工程后环境影响评价》的议提案。　　议提案指出，在建成投产后的15年里，三峡工程虽存在对其航运价值、发电效益、能源转型贡献等方面的研究小结，但不是很系统、全面，至今也没有公布工程竣工验收的相关文件，没有开展相应的、完整的重大建设工程后环境影响评价。这一情况已对长江全流域的保护与建设，以及后续重大建设工程的开建造成现实困扰。以鄱阳湖水利枢纽工程为例，江西省近年来屡屡提出建设鄱阳湖水利枢纽工程的一个最重要动因，是三峡工程建设以来，每年秋季从长江干流进入鄱阳湖的来水大幅减少，鄱阳湖秋旱加剧，故推论原本的湖泊水文生态发生不可逆的改变，为留住一湖清水，江西省提出建闸。三峡工程对长江全流域的水沙调剂有着举足轻重的作用。在该工程全面建成投产的15年里，长江中下游径流水沙的改变幅度、枯水季有无采取相应措施调剂水量及调剂力度、保留生态用水的比例、对水生生物的影响等真实状况如何，目前均无法得知，原因就是缺少全面、客观的评价。如果开展该建设项目的后环境影响评价，则可以得出相对理性的结论，能够为鄱阳湖应否建闸提供科学论证，以及对如何应对或解决鄱阳湖秋旱问题提供更全面、更系统的解决方案，切实推进长江流域的生态文明建设。同样，对长江上游地区的地质影响、生物影响等，也亟须全面开展评估与研究。　　绿会研究室指出，尽快开展三峡工程后环境影响评价可以与时俱进，实现与国家《环境影响评价法》、《建设项目环境影响后评价管理办法（试行）》以及2021年施行的《长江保护法》有效对接与衔接，并推动系列法律法规的完善与落地，为长江流域的可持续发展提供范例、做出表率，助推国家生态文明发展。《长江保护法》总则要求：“长江保护应当坚持统筹协调、科学规划、创新驱动、系统治理。”同时第三十一条规定：“将长江干流、重要支流和重要湖泊控制断面的生态流量进行管控，要求这些重点生态区位上的水利水电、航运枢纽等工程要将生态用水调度纳入日常运行调度。”三峡工程也不例外。三峡工程在开展后环境影响评价过程中，也必须考虑生态用水的日常运行调度落实情况，而这对鄱阳湖乃至长江中下游影响深远。　　因此，绿会建议尽快开展三峡工程后环境影响评价工作，不能在未对三峡工程的后环境影响做出全面评估前，对受三峡工程影响的中下游重要通江湖泊再次核准大型水利工程建设项目动工。因为一则建设前提不清，很可能做出错误判断，从而导致采取针对历史错误反复打补丁的解决方式，带来重大损失；二则违背了《长江保护法》中“统筹协调、科学规划、创新驱动、系统治理”的原则和相关要求。　　来源：《小康》·中国小康网　　作者：袁帅　　校对：李旭颖　　审核：龚紫陌。

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