Maybe you’ve experienced this before: trying to figure out how to twist and turn a plastic canister so it doesn’t leak or spill everywhere when you fill up the tank of your vehicle or lawn mower. You’re not the only one.
A Redditor shared this common and frustrating experience with us earlier this year, and numerous people expressed their sympathy. Thankfully, they also offered a solution.
“If you’ve bought a gas can since 2009 or so, you have these or some variation of those horrible safety pourers,” the poster wrote, adding two photos. “I don’t know about anyone else, but I’ve spilled a lot more gas trying to use these things than with the old free-flowing ones.”
They described problems encountered during normal use and storage, including difficulties in use and the inadvertent creation of a gas bomb that turned into a bowling ball.
“These things are useless,” one user agreed.
The solution was a $17 kit purchased online that included all the parts needed to retrofit six cans: flexible pour spouts, screw-on pour spout caps, vent holes, vent caps, gaskets “and even a drill to install the vent.”
Fortunately, it was a cheap and quick solution, although it’s annoying that it had to come to this. Poor product design contributes to the excessive waste that chokes our lives and leads to unnecessary waste of resources in the form of manufacturing replacement parts or items.
One commenter pointed out that the faulty cans were the result of incorrect environmental regulations. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency had attempted to limit the escape of gasoline vapors into the atmosphere, and then, as a second safety measure, a feature was added that made pouring the gasoline from the cans even more difficult.
No one was advocating further pollution of the earth, which leads to rising temperatures and makes extreme weather events such as heavy rain, droughts and forest fires more frequent and severe. But if a law creates more problems than it solves, it is obviously negative.
Perhaps the lesson we can learn from this is that we should consider alternatives to gasoline engines, including battery-powered electric vehicles and lawn equipment. Electric vehicles in particular may require a higher initial investment than traditional options, but in the long run they save money and contribute to the green transition that aims to ensure a gasoline-vapor-free future for all.
If you’re not ready to give up your gas-powered lawn mower, trimmer and leaf blower just yet, try using them less often. One option is to replace your traditional lawn with a natural alternative like clover, which requires less maintenance, water, fertilizer or pesticides – providing even more benefits for you and the planet.
Especially when you weigh up the disadvantages of “these ridiculous gas cans,” as the author calls them, the decision is clear.
“Fun fact: my friend and I did an experiment, we filled a 5 gallon version of these with water and emptied it like I would fill my tank on a long road trip through nowhere (or California),” said one Redditor. “Want to know how much spilled? 1 1/2 cups. That’s 1 1/2 cups of damn gas wasted and dumped into the environment. These things are absolutely hot garbage.”
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