How your old fave Watermelon Ice vape became a secret weapon on the battlefield | News World

They once littered our pavements and filled the air with clouds of sickly flavoured fumes – but banned British vapes are getting a second life, powering vital devices for frontline defenders in Ukraine.

Because the government outlawed single-use vapes a 12 months ago today, volunteers in a Lviv workshop are repurposing hundreds of discarded
e-cigarettes from the UK into battlefield power sources.

Ingenuity is on the forefront of Ukraine’s fightback against the continuing Russian invasion, with cutting-edge Ukrainian drone tech drawing global admiration.

Joining this creative spirit, quite a few smaller-scale projects have sprung as much as support the unusual men and girls defending their country against brutal Russian attacks.

Most are run by relatives of those risking their lives to repel invaders. But some are organised by an unofficial army of foreign volunteers from the UK, Europe, the US and worldwide, who give their time, funds and skills to support Ukraine’s fight for freedom.

Certainly one of those volunteers is Ben Hoerber, 35, from Florida, a former teacher who felt supporting Ukraine was the proper thing to do.

He says: ‘It makes more sense to be here helping than to pretend every little thing is normal on this planet.’

Ben uses lithium batteries from the vapes to create power banks for frontline soldiers, often utilized in combat zone trenches.

‘Energy is like food and water on the frontlines – it’s essential for powering the equipment that keeps you alive,’ says Ben, who arrived in Ukraine in 2023.

Before the ban, it was estimated greater than five million single-use vapes were thrown away every week within the UK.

In 2022, about 40 tonnes of lithium from disposable vapes were discarded, an amount which could power 5,000 electric vehicles.

Clearly, this untapped energy source might be put to raised use than piling up in landfills across the UK.

How does it work?

‘The banned vapes are worthwhile because they contain rechargeable lithium-ion batteries, despite the fact that the device doesn’t have a charging port and is supposed to be thrown away,’ explains Ben.

‘We designed a solution to put enough batteries together for an influence bank, using 50 vape power cells for one bank.’

Vape cases are cracked open, batteries extracted, then quality-checked with a homemade testing system.

‘We’d use a small saw if extracting is difficult, but generally all you would like is pliers and safety glasses,’ says Ben.

Battery cells are soldered together, then wires are attached, running to a chip.

It’s all installed right into a 3D printed box, embossed with a resplendent Tryzub symbol (a Ukrainian emblem of resistance). It’s tested, then glued together.

Requests for power banks come via volunteers connected to frontline units or from the units themselves, with Ukrainian volunteer groups sorting the logistics of getting them to the front.

One bank can power two devices at the identical time, corresponding to phones, screens, radios, drone batteries or anti-drone detectors. The facility lasts for a great few days before it needs recharging.

‘The facility banks are saving lives, because soldiers don’t should run back incessantly to recharge equipment, which potentially draws fire. The blokes are all the time very grateful. One group charged their drone antenna system with our bank and sent us an image – that was exciting!’ says Ben.

The curious alchemy of turning defunct vapes into life-saving power sources happens in a unassuming workshop on a humdrum street somewhere outside the historic centre of Lviv.

The town just 70km from the Polish border is a UNESCO World Heritage site with a shocking opera house, fabulous restaurants and a full of life café culture.

No wonder it attracts a thriving volunteer community, who’re united in wanting to assist Ukraine in whatever way they’ll. It’s this ready supply of helping hands that drew Ben to base himself in Lviv.

The volunteers come and go, some staying for a number of days, others a number of weeks or for much longer. Most appear to fall in love with Lviv.

‘On a great day, we now have around eight to 10 volunteers within the workshop, often from Europe and the US.

‘It takes about quarter-hour to show someone what we do. I show them solder and review their work until it’s as much as scratch.

‘It takes a brand new person about 4 hours to make one power bank, all the way down to perhaps two hours while you’re expert.

‘But we now have a producing process with one person doing a single aspect repetitively, in order that they get expert.

‘The UK vapes are great as they’re all the identical design, which makes processing them easier,’ he says.

Last month, the workshop team produced 80 power banks, but is hoping to extend to 100 or 120 monthly.

A daily volunteer within the workshop is Anca Marin, who helps process the vapes into power banks. But she also plays an important role in the general operation by getting the vapes from the UK, where she lives, to Ukraine.

‘A Ukrainian friend introduced me to Viacheslav Semeniuk at Leeds Ukrainian Community Association, after I examine him using vape batteries to make power banks.

‘I processed a primary batch of vapes for them. After that, I used to be given about 10,000 vapes for Ben’s project. I cut the vapes, remove the batteries, and secure them for transport. In fact, I also recycle the packaging as much as possible.’

How are the vapes shipped to Ukraine?

‘Batteries not in original packaging could be flammable, so you’ll be able to’t use regular postal services,’ says Anca.

‘Also they are quite heavy. So, I discovered a one that does regular humanitarian aid trips to Ukraine, so I drop them off with that person to be driven to Ukraine.’

Although the dedicated volunteers give their time and work without cost, there are, in fact, costs related to production.

‘We’ve got to purchase the electronic chip – it’s about 1.50 dollars. Overall, it costs about five dollars for the materials to make one power bank. But the same 20,000 milliamp-hour power bank would cost near 50 dollars here in Ukraine,’ says Ben.

But then, there’s the fee of renting the workshop (1,000 dollars monthly) and energy costs of about 400 dollars monthly.

Set-up equipment, corresponding to the 3D printer, was paid for from Ben’s own pocket. So, how does he manage to maintain things going?

The reply is basically through donations via his YouTube channel, plus his organisation has just been granted USA non-profit charitable status, meaning it’s tax-exempt and eligible for grants.

The organisation name, Florida Man For Ukraine Incorporated, is a nod to his home state and a jokey reference to the ‘Florida Man’ web meme. ‘I left my profession as a teacher to look after my mother in Florida for six years.

‘Meanwhile, I worked as a bartender within the evenings and managed to avoid wasting up a bit. After my mother’s death, I used to be planning to get away on a visit around Europe in my van.

‘But when the full-scale invasion happened, that modified because I desired to help Ukraine. I learned the language online before coming, but had no other connections. I started off doing humanitarian runs in my van, then I met people and things went on from there,’ says Ben.

He began making the ability banks in 2025 after working on several other projects. About 6,000 UK vapes have been shipped to Lviv to this point, with one other few thousand to return.

Then, they’ll need one other source. But recent ideas are all the time flowing, sometimes over a black coffee in one among Lviv’s chic coffee shops, where Ben goes to sit down and think, while scribbling ideas down in his journal.

He also enjoys understanding and using yoga to destress, in addition to having a beer in the trendy bars of central Lviv.

Next, he has exciting plans to make use of hoverboards to make a ground drone to maneuver supplies to the front, so soldiers don’t should risk their lives doing this. He also wants to make use of batteries from e-bikes in power banks.

‘I’m all the time planning for larger things,’ he says.

‘We had a solar panel donated, so we just arrange our first solar station in a settlement for individuals who have been displaced from their homes by Russia’s invasion.

‘I need to expand production to make more items and higher quality ones. I’d like to open up one other studio and have more volunteers come to assist. More donations could be very useful too!’

Can he ever see himself returning to life in Florida? ‘My future is in Ukraine,’ he says.

‘What’s happening here affects us all; considering it has no bearing on you is shortsighted. So, that is our time to do something about it. So long as the war is going on, my workshop might be open.’

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