Driver shares photo after mystery item punctures tire: 'Ruined my day'

This littered object is harming the planet, and this unlucky driver's tires, too.

A flat tire can be day-ruining, especially without a spare, and even more so when it's the fault of an irresponsible litterer. After their tire popped, this Redditor asked r/whatisit for help identifying the at-fault object.

"Whatever this is ruined my day," they wrote. "It punctured my tire and gave me a flat."

It's a small, screw-like piece of metal that one commenter identified as "a thc vape without the glass and the tip on it."

Cigarettes are the most littered item in the world, making up one-third of all litter. Now, tossed tobacco is joined by millions of e-cigarettes, vapes, and cartridges. In the United States alone, "5.7 disposable vapes were discarded per second in 2023," per PIRG. 

Auto shop workers are frequently finding tires punctured by the sharp interiors of these products. While the inner coils are the usual culprit, this mechanic pulled the entire vape pen out of someone's tire. They're bad for your lungs, bad for your tires, and bad for the planet, too.

These cartridges contain lithium-ion batteries, THC or nicotine, plastic, and other chemicals that make them dangerous to throw away and extremely difficult to recycle. They're designed to be single-use and disposable, but without any regard to the significant environmental impact of throwing them away. 

The U.K. had a huge vaping problem — over 5 million vapes were being littered every week. To curb vaping and pollution, the UK announced a ban on single-use vapes. U.S. states, like California and North Carolina, are only just starting to ban these disposable disasters.

Commenters helped identify the tire-popping piece of metal and expressed their disappointment in litterers.

A Redditor informed the driver that "you ran over a piece of a vape....sorry 'bout your tire!"

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"That exact same thing happened to me," another user said. "I ran over one of those at a rest area and got a flat tire. The roadside repair guy and I could not figure out what it was when he pulled it out of my tire."

"Wish people would dispose of their vape properly," a third commenter agreed.

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