Resident shares disturbing image of growing trash trend on city sidewalks: 'The fact that there's so many ... is honestly disgusting'

One Redditor has had just about enough of a troubling trend that has emerged in their neighborhood. 

They took a picture of the 22 discarded vapes they had collected and shared it with the r/mildlyinfuriating community, prompting a little more than mild fury.

"We have a lot of kids around here, and the fact that there's so many and even some THC ones is honestly disgusting," the original poster said. "I took the liberty of destroying all of them and throwing them out."

The post generated over 200 comments, with many expressing similar outrage. 

One person said, "It's like selling an unrefillable car that stops working after you ran out of gas." 

Another mentioned how annoying and ever-present they are: "They are everywhere, literally can't walk 100 feet in my town without seeing one on the sidewalk or curb."

A third pointed out the fact that they're somehow worse than cigarettes for waste: "I liked vapes over cigarettes because we'd get less butts all over and everywhere and what do vape companies do? Make big cigarette butts in the form of disposable vapes."

The discussion raised a key issue with vapes and disposable electronics in general. Even vapes that aren't littered still pose a major environmental concern. 

Vast amounts of electronic waste (e-waste) are carelessly dumped in landfills every year, leaving behind toxic and non-biodegradable materials. A UN report estimated that 60-90% of all e-waste is dumped illegally. 

Vapes are among the worst offenders when it comes to e-waste. Their plastic shell renders the perfectly recyclable materials inside them useless, and the lithium-ion batteries, which could otherwise be put to good use, are instead left to create a fire hazard. 

Do you think America has a plastic waste problem? Definitely 👍 Only in some areas 🫤 Not really 👎 I'm not sure 🤷 Click your choice to see results and speak your mind.

As one of the commenters said: "Ugh! That's horrible! All that microplastic poisoning the environment!"

A British commenter spoke favorably of their country's intention to ban single-use vapes. "We're all so happy for disposables to finally be getting banned June 1," they said.

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