Green Battery Power

By Lori Blake

In America alone, we throw away enough trash to fill a convoy of garbage trucks that could wrap around the earth six times and reach halfway to the moon. That’s according to fooddemocracy.wordpress.com. What a startling picture! Hopefully, this information will continue to motivate us to use less, and recycle more.

Let’s start with all your battery powered devices. Batteries can be a significant part of your budget. Think about all the items in your home that run on batteries. Counting cameras, mp3 players, remote controls and flashlights, my household runs on about 18 batteries that need to be replaced or recharged every 2 to 4 weeks. That’s a lot of batteries over a year. You can save money and the environment with some green battery choices.

Manufacturers produce over 15 billion batteries every year according to greenbatteries.com. That includes alkaline and rechargeable batteries. Advances in battery technology means you can buy a longer lasting rechargeable battery and one that is more environmentally friendly than its disposable counterpart. The rechargeable NiMH battery is much less expensive to use overall than the alkaline throwaways.

Uniross commissioned the world’s first study on the environmental impact of alkaline batteries vs. rechargeable batteries. They found that rechargeable batteries have up to 28 times less impact on the environment than alkaline batteries. Rechargeable batteries can be reused up to 1,000 times, obviously reducing the number of new batteries that need to be manufactured. The study also found that rechargeable batteries have up to 30 times less impact on ozone pollution than disposable batteries.

Greenbatteries.com chooses the Nickel metal hydride AA and AAA batteries as the most environmentally friendly rechargeable batteries. The higher the mAh rating on your NiMH high capacity battery the longer it will last per charge. There is also a “ready to use” battery known as an Ultra Low Self Discharge (ULSD) battery which means when you buy it you can slip it right into your digital camera and start clicking away without charging it first. One buyer said, “I went on vacation for 7 days and took more than 100 pictures without needing to change the batteries for recharging.”

Although rechargeable batteries are your best bet, should you have to purchase disposable batteries, it’s helpful to know which ones will last the longest. Consumer Reports evaluated the battery life in high-drain devices, like a digital camera, and medium-drain devices such as a CD player. "Our tests showed big differences in battery performance depending on what's being powered. So it really makes sense when you're buying disposable batteries to have a specific device in mind," said Kim Kleman of Consumer Reports.

It turns out the best battery for a digital camera is the Energizer E-2 Lithium, which easily outperformed the Duracell Power Pix and Panasonic Oxyride batteries. At $2.35 each, the Energizer was the most expensive battery tested. But considering the E-2 ran three to seven times longer than the batteries tested, Consumer Reports says it's worth the extra cost. For information on the best batteries to buy for specific devices check out http://www.consumersearch.com/www/electronics/batteries/reviews.html.

If you buy a 4-pack of rechargeable batteries for $20.00 and they last for 500 recharges or more, you will save over $900.00 by choosing rechargeable over disposable. A battery charger costs about $10 - $30 and the cost to recharge works out to around 2 cents per charge. The grand total of the rechargeables is around $50.00 for their serviceable life. Heavy Duty disposables at $2 per 4-pack with the equivalent usage of the rechargeables, will cost $1,000.

Taking care of your batteries is important. First of all, though it may sound silly, keep track of where you store your batteries. My husband and I think we need batteries, so we buy them only to find out there were 2 or 3 packages of them in the kitchen “junk drawer”. After all, the whole point is to have fewer batteries to dispose of, right? Also, store the batteries in cooler temperatures out of direct sunlight. Recharge regularly but avoid overcharging and don’t mix rechargeables with alkaline batteries.

All batteries will eventually wear out, even the rechargeable ones. Dispose of them properly. They are considered Hazardous Household Waste, so don’t just throw them in your garbage can. Recycle them. You can find your local collection facility by going to www.rbrc.org.

It might be easier and cheaper at first to use disposable items, but in the long run, how much are we really saving? Convenience or conservation. We each need to decide what is most important not only for right now, but for the future.