Searching for treasure with metal detectors can often be a rewarding pastime for enthusiasts. One person with a metal detector, searching for valuable metal, instead stumbled upon an appalling find that has become a growing environmental harm.

"Found this vape pen with my metal detector," wrote the OP in the popular subreddit r/MetalDetecting. The post was accompanied by photos of a dug-up, bright-yellow vape.

While it may be easy to brush this find off as a rare occurrence, the subreddit assured the OP that's not the case.

"Wow, those things are literally showing up everywhere now," commented one Redditor. 

In 2021, there were 82 million vapers worldwide. Research suggests that these numbers have only grown with children experimenting with vaping growing 50% year on year, as of 2023. Nicotine, as well as formaldehyde, Acrolein, and Diacetyl, are key chemicals that lead to irreversible lung damage. At the same time, vaping can spread these chemicals, causing air pollution, formulating airborne particles, and degrading air quality for those beyond just the vaper. 

According to studies, the prevalence of vaping means littered vapes are becoming pervasive. The Scottish Government released in a 2023 report that "an estimated 10% [of vapes] were littered and more than half were incorrectly disposed of."

There are numerous reasons why the growing estimate of littered vapes remains worrying to environmentalists. Greenpeace UK explained that littered vapes can cause harm to humans and wildlife due to chemicals like battery acid, lithium, and nicotine that can leak out. Moreover, even when thrown away, vapes' lithium batteries "are highly flammable and have been causing dangerous fires in [garbage trucks]  and waste processing centres."

Redditors are worried by the find. 

One angry commenter expressed, "They are becoming pretty prevalent," and that this is because people think "it's okay to just throw these in the ocean or anywhere else outside. They are another scourge on the environment."

Changes are being made to mitigate the environmental impact. The UK Government has demanded a ban on disposable vapes. Meanwhile, rechargeable or refillable vapes are growing in popularity. To make an individual change, it's crucial to gravitate toward rechargeable vapes and find a disposable vape recycling service in your area. 

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