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After several years in the Indonesian market, e-cigarettes have now reached 2 million users and continue to grow every day. With such a large number, the waste from their use will naturally also continue to increase. Aryo Andrianto, Chairman of the Indonesian Personal Vaporizer Association (APVI), said that his organization is currently planning a recycling system for used e-cigarettes.

"Actually, we have been thinking about this issue for a long time. Until now, we are still developing a recycling system for this vape waste. We also need support from companies and especially from vape users," said Aryo when contacted by the Vapeboss Indonesia team (3/6/2022).

According to Aryo, a vape recycling system already exists, but only in the form of campaigns for exchanging used liquid bottles from vape industries such as Indonesia Juice Cartel, Movi, Vapeboss Indonesia, and many more. Through this, the number of liquid bottle waste can be reduced, benefiting both consumers and business owners.

"For now, the form of recycling is limited to exchanging used liquid bottles, and that too is from distributors and vape stores like Indonesia Juice Cartel, Movi, Vapeboss, etc.," said Aryo.

Aryo also admitted the difficulty of creating a recycling system for vapes. He then compared the relatively small amount of waste from the vape industry with that of giant companies in the food, beverage, and conventional tobacco industries. Therefore, when considering a vape recycling system to be realized, he felt that this small industry is very concerned about the environment and is not underestimated by other companies.

"Even now, we are thinking about how to package this recycling system so that other companies don't look down on us. We've even thought, for example, of every vape store from Sabang to Merauke handling the vape waste of its consumers."

"We are a small industry. Compared to large industries in the food and beverage sector, our waste is nothing, especially compared to the waste from 80 million smokers in Indonesia, where one pack contains cardboard, plastic, butts, and aluminum foil. That would surely be much more when multiplied than 2 million vapers who, on average, only use one liquid bottle every 1-2 weeks."

While planning and considering a vape recycling system, Aryo advised Indonesian vapers to continue supporting the Association and suggested that vapers store their used vape items properly and not dispose of them carelessly.

"My message is, if possible, store your unused vapes and accessories; don't throw them away carelessly. And while we figure out a good way to recycle vapes, please keep supporting us."