What started as a post-holiday cleanup along the Salt River turned into a full-on junk haul, with volunteers and state crews pulling roughly 2,500 pounds of trash out of the popular recreation spot. Mixed in with the usual river leftovers were dozens of phones, three umbrellas and even a hamster cage, highlighting just how much gets left behind when the crowds go home.
According to Arizona's Family, crews also fished out about 22 pounds of disposable vapes from the water and riverbanks, a finding that immediately set off alarm bells at the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality. "There’s chemicals. You’re introducing that into our waterway," Meghan Smart of ADEQ told Arizona's Family, adding that she had never seen that many vapes pulled from the river at once.
In a LinkedIn post the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality said ADEQ staff teamed up with the Salty Scuba Squad and more than 50 volunteers to clean both the shoreline and the riverbed, logging roughly 21.4 pounds of vapes alone. Divers with the nonprofit and partner groups managed to return many of the recovered phones to their owners and helped shuttle heavy, stuffed trash bags out of hard-to-reach tubing stretches.
Why Vapes Are More Than Just Litter
Disposable vapes bundle concentrated nicotine liquid with built-in lithium-ion batteries, which makes them more than simple plastic trash and subject to special handling under hazardous-waste rules, as outlined by the Vermont DEC. If batteries are crushed they can ignite, and nicotine liquids are toxic to people and wildlife, risks that have contributed to fires and safety issues at waste facilities, according to reporting by Tobacco Reporter.
State officials used the Salt River cleanup as a timely reminder for river users to "pack out what you pack in" and use trash cans instead of leaving debris on the shore or in the water. They also encouraged people to pick up small bits of litter when it is safe to do so, Arizona's Family reported. The nudge comes just ahead of another holiday weekend, when tubing traffic spikes and garbage can pile up fast.
Cleanup organizers warn volunteers not to handle swollen or leaking vape devices and to avoid direct contact with any nicotine liquid. Guidance from the Vermont DEC recommends bagging intact devices and placing damaged ones in a sealed, fire containment container so professionals can take over. Those interested in pitching in on future cleanups or looking for lost property can find event calendars and galleries of recovered items on the Salty Scuba Squad and Natural Restorations websites.
