The Ukrainian people have proven to be quite resourceful in their war against Russia, which began with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022. Now, it appears they’ve managed to turn otherwise ordinary disposable vapes that have been set aside to be recycled into useful tools in their fight against Russia.
Disposable vapes are commonplace in many countries where vaping is popular and Ukraine is no exception. While one may seem wise to assume that disposable vapes, given their name, are made using single-use batteries that cannot be recharged, this is simply not the case.
“We thought that e-cigs contained disposable batteries that could not be re-charged. We took one apart and discovered that was not the case! So, we removed the batteries from the e-cigarettes and created protection modules for them. Thus, by saving money on batteries, we could buy many more components and build many more power banks for our soldiers,” Ivan Volynets reportedly told Euromaidan Press.
Ivan and his IT friends have formed a team that has worked together to create power banks that the team has supplied to Ukrainian soldiers. Working together, the team has crafted over 50 power banks that they’ve transferred to the front lines.
The power banks that Ivan’s team has created average between 17,000 and 20,000 mAh, which typically provide enough power to recharge smartphones anywhere from two to three times.
Ivan and his team’s efforts to produce power banks to supply front-line soldiers with a means by which to power electronic devices serves as just one of numerous examples of Ukrainian ingenuity exhibited during this time of crisis.
According to Ivan’s friends in the army, the first homemade power banks that his team created have managed to last for over a month.
While Ivan’s team continues to create power banks to support their country’s military, their ambitions extend beyond wartime goals of necessity, as they would like to see their country establish an e-waste recycling and disposal center where not only batteries but metal and plastic components could be recycled and repurposed in new electronic devices.
