Assault and Batteries

Look around you, how many electronic devices do you see? Now eliminate everything that you plug into the wall or that is rechargeable. What are you left with? For me, I see four television controllers, four game console controllers, two calculators, an alarm clock, a pair of headphones and a shaver. Now what do all those things have in common? Batteries.

Batteries can be extremely dangerous. Most disposable batteries end up in a landfill after their time has been served (generally not a very long time either). The cheap metal casings that we see when we look at batteries cover up the real problem. Once these thin casings are easily crushed or erode in a landfill the toxins within are released into the environment. These toxins include lithium, thionyl chloride and, in older batteries, mercury. Lithium can spontaneous ignite, thionyl chloride produces highly acidic and corrosive fumes and mercury is obviously very deadly. Yummy! Worst yet, no one thinks twice about throwing away dozens of batteries. In my list of electronics above I found 36 standard disposable batteries that I would have otherwise just thrown into the trash but will now be disposed of properly.

Personally, I will be switching to rechargeable batteries, available at many general stores. These are pretty cool, much easier as you don’t need to run to the store and buy 16 trillion batteries every month and, in the long run, much more cost effective. You’ll definitely love the switch, trust me. I mean, c’mon guys, this one isn’t hard at all!

-James