Driver shaken after bizarre piece of litter causes highway emergency: 'I didn't know they could blow out tires'

Disposable vapes are a significant environmental problem, and one Redditor has now highlighted another potential issue.

The user shared a surprising story in the subreddit r/northernireland after their sister's car tire was punctured by a discarded disposable vape, leading to a blowout. The user wrote, "I didn't know they could blow out tyres either. She's fine, but her car isn't."

This kind of thing shows how bad vape litter has gotten. Most disposables are made of plastic and have lithium batteries inside, and clearly these materials can be dangerous, to a car in this case but also to humans and wildlife. When these vapes get tossed on the ground, they can leak chemicals into the soil or water, which can harm animals and nearby ecosystems.

In the U.K., it's estimated that 1.3 million disposable vapes are thrown out every single week, per Material Focus. That's a huge amount of waste — and a ton of lithium that could have been reused for things like electric car batteries. Instead, it's ending up in gutters, bushes, and landfills.

Greenpeace warned that if these batteries get crushed or damaged, they can even start fires in garbage trucks or recycling centers. And because they're small and mixed materials, most local recycling systems aren't equipped to handle them.

The U.K. government plans to ban disposable vapes from June 1. Other countries are still weighing their options, but more bans could be coming soon. A lot of people seem ready for it.

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"I've always said, throwing a cigarette out your window is one thing but you gotta be a real piece of s*** to throw a vape out the window," one person said in the Reddit thread.

"I've been trying to collect all the disposable vapes I see so the lithium batteries don't explode on some poor soul. Unfortunately sometimes they're dented or close to being pierced," another wrote. "It's stupid that people just throw them anywhere."

There's a lot of frustration in the thread; not just about the litter, but about how normalized it is to disregard the dangers. Some solutions are switching to reusable vapes or quitting entirely, and helping pick up any tossed ones you see to keep them out of harm's way. Joining local cleanup efforts can make a difference.

Do you think America has a plastic waste problem?

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