Improving Vape Disposal with Boulder County
As vaping continues to be popular in the United States, we are now faced with an environmental concern about how they are disposed of. According to the U.S. PIRG, "Disposable vape waste contributes to 30 tons of lithium discarded each year – the equivalent needed to produce 3,350 electric vehicle batteries".
Boulder County Public Health’s Tobacco Education and Prevention Partnership (TEPP) is working hard to combat the environmental impacts and ensure vapes are safely disposed of. To ensure residents know of the local areas to properly do so, TEPP wanted to refresh and update its print and digital marketing materials promoting local safe vape disposal sites across the county.
In June 2025, we partnered with TEPP to redesign and streamline their full suite of outreach materials—including social media graphics, banners, rack cards, flyers, business cards, and more.
The Goals
Through the process, TEPP wanted to align with three main goals:
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Clarity & Accessibility – Develop creative materials in both English and Spanish that use clear, simple language.
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Relatability – Revise the content so it resonates with diverse local communities and people of all ages.
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Immediate Impact – Ensure that anyone glancing at a flyer or post instantly understands the call to action: safely dispose of your vapes.
The Analysis
We began by analyzing previous community survey data, creative content, and interview notes from the TEPP team.
Through analysis, we discovered three key changes to be made:
The Changes
Messaging
To make it relatable and hit on the “why” people should safely dispose of vapes, we developed a
series of creative content aligned with “Safe Vape Disposal Means X”
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This is an easy-to-customize message that allows the BCPH team to iterate on it when needed, by replacing X with things that encourage people who use vapes to actually dispose of them properly.
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Focus on “Why” – Show vape users why safe disposal is important, not just how to do it.
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Visual distinction – Introduce fresh colors that align with Boulder County Public Health’s brand while standing out enough to grab attention.
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Simplify– Make the language clear, easy to understand at a glance, and easily translated without losing meaning.
In addition to the “Why” stream of messaging, we developed drop-off location materials and print materials that were then aligned with the umbrella message: “Safe Vape Disposal Means A Safer Boulder County”
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We made these ads to be customizable to match the needs of residents, whether in more rural areas like Nederland or cities like Boulder.
Behind The Designs
Simple descriptions of why people should properly dispose of vapes.
QR code for easy access to a list of locations.
Geekbar style graphics to align with the most frequently disposed of vapes in the county.
Disclaimer to ensure people do not dispose of THC vapes at the listed locations.
Brand logos to ensure credibility and organization recognition.
Video Editing
Beyond static and print materials, the Effct.org team supported updating a social media reel to:
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Create a stronger hook to get viewers interested in the first three seconds
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Match the new branding and messaging.
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Add an engaging call to action at the end
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Include easy-to-read captions in both English and Spanish.