The modern vape traces back to a Chinese pharmacist named Hon Lik, who built the first commercially viable electronic cigarette in 2003. Today, roughly 90% of the world’s vapes are still manufactured in China, primarily in Shenzhen, before being shipped to retailers and consumers across the globe. The journey from raw materials to the device in your hand involves a surprisingly complex global supply chain.
The Invention of the Modern Vape
The idea of a smokeless, non-tobacco device is older than most people realize. In 1965, an American inventor named Herbert A. Gilbert patented a “smokeless non-tobacco cigarette” that delivered flavored steam without burning anything. The device never took off commercially, but it planted the concept decades before the technology caught up.
The breakthrough came in 2003 or 2004, when Hon Lik, a pharmacist and heavy smoker working in medical research in Beijing, created what he called “a flameless electronic atomizing cigarette.” His motivation was personal: his father, also a smoker, had died of lung cancer. Hon’s device used a battery-powered heating element to vaporize a liquid solution containing nicotine, delivering it as an inhalable mist rather than smoke. The company he worked for, Golden Dragon Holdings, rebranded itself as Ruyan, a Chinese word meaning “like smoke.” From there, the devices spread to Europe and North America within a few years, and an entire industry followed.
Where Vapes Are Made
China dominates vape manufacturing on a scale that’s hard to overstate. Shenzhen, the sprawling tech and manufacturing hub in southern China, accounts for about 90% of global production capacity. The city already had the infrastructure for consumer electronics, lithium batteries, and precision assembly, which made it a natural home for vape production. Hundreds of factories in Shenzhen produce everything from budget disposable vapes to high-end refillable devices, often for Western brands that design the product but outsource all fabrication.
Some manufacturing has begun shifting to Southeast Asia as companies diversify their supply chains, but China remains the center of gravity. The global e-cigarette market was valued at roughly $13.4 billion in 2024 and is projected to reach $15.9 billion in 2025, growing at about 16% per year. That growth keeps Shenzhen’s factories running at high volume.
What Goes Into a Vape
A vape has two core components: the liquid that gets vaporized and the hardware that does the vaporizing. Both draw on global supply chains.
The Liquid
E-liquid is a mixture of just a few ingredients: propylene glycol, vegetable glycerin, nicotine, water, and flavoring compounds. Propylene glycol is a synthetic liquid used widely in food, cosmetics, and pharmaceuticals. Vegetable glycerin is derived from plant oils, typically soy, palm, or coconut. These two form the base of the liquid and determine how thick the vapor is and how strong the “throat hit” feels. Nicotine is extracted from tobacco leaves, with major production in China and India. Flavorings are sourced from the same chemical suppliers that serve the food and fragrance industries.
The Hardware
The physical device contains a lithium-ion battery, a heating coil, a small reservoir for liquid, and a mouthpiece. Heating coils are typically made from nickel-based alloys or stainless steel. The device body is usually aluminum, sometimes combined with titanium. Circuit boards regulate the battery output and, in more advanced devices, allow users to adjust temperature or wattage. All of these components rely on metals and minerals sourced from mining operations around the world, with lithium primarily coming from Australia, Chile, and China, and nickel from Indonesia, the Philippines, and Russia.
Disposable vapes pack all of this into a single sealed unit designed to be thrown away after the liquid runs out. Refillable systems separate the battery from replaceable pods or tanks, which means fewer raw materials consumed over time.
How They Get to You
Most vapes follow a straightforward path: manufactured in China, shipped in bulk by sea freight to distribution hubs in the destination country, then sold through convenience stores, vape shops, gas stations, or online retailers. Some larger brands operate their own distribution networks, while smaller ones rely on wholesalers.
In the United States, the FDA has been tightening oversight of what enters the market. The agency has proposed formal tobacco product manufacturing practice (TPMP) rules that would apply to both domestic and foreign manufacturers. These rules borrow principles from quality management standards like ISO 9001, covering everything from ingredient handling to packaging and labeling. Manufacturers selling in the U.S. are also required to submit premarket tobacco product applications, which means they need to demonstrate that their product meets specific public health standards before it can legally be sold. In practice, enforcement has struggled to keep pace with the flood of products, particularly disposables imported from overseas.
The Waste Problem
The rise of disposable vapes has created a growing environmental headache. Each device contains a lithium battery, a circuit board, plastic housing, and residual nicotine, none of which break down easily in a landfill. About 83% of adults who use disposable vapes simply throw them in the trash. Only around 6% recycle, return, or reuse their devices.
Recycling is technically possible through e-waste facilities, household hazardous waste programs, mail-back services, or retail take-back programs. But the sealed design of most disposables makes it nearly impossible for consumers to remove the battery themselves, which is a basic requirement for proper recycling. The plastic, electronics, and chemical residues in discarded vapes are non-biodegradable and poorly recyclable, creating a waste stream that local recycling infrastructure was never designed to handle. As disposable vape use continues to climb, this gap between what could be recycled and what actually gets recycled keeps widening.