Greener Batteries

The move from disposable to rechargeable batteries isn't going as well as it might. Maybe it's because the effort, on an individual basis, seems to have such a small impact. But the hundreds of thousands of discarded batteries sent to landfills every year are threatening the environment with toxic heavy metals. The technology to slow that flow is being constantly improved, but it doesn't work when it's sitting on a shelf.

* Do your part. Please. First, if other eco-friendly alternatives are available, use them in place of batteries. Next, where batteries are the only option, or the best option, recharging needs to become a world-wide tradition. The habit of using rechargeable batteries needs to be practiced by everyone, everywhere. If you don't own a charger along with a small stack of rechargeable batteries, acquire a set today. Help others acquire the habit, by adding a set to that next gift-gizmo you wrap.

* Be sure to recycle your old batteries. Stainless steel products, and new batteries, are made from the metals recovered from used batteries.

* While you're at it, watch for a new version that's coming available, produced by a company called PureEnergy Solutions. Called a Rechargeable Alkaline Manganese (RAM) battery, the product is made with no heavy metals.

Thanks to a type of algae often deemed bothersome, the possibility of metal-free batteries has moved a step closer to commercial feasibility.

* Conductive polymer batteries are lightweight batteries made of cellulose fiber (paper) coated with thin layers of composite electrode polymer materials instead of toxic metals.

o These metal-free batteries are recyclable, mechanically sturdy, and less expensive to make than the highly poisonous and dangerously flammable batteries that currently dominate the gadget industry.

o Conductive polymer batteries, whether made with normal paper or another fiber, can literally be made paper-thin and paper flexible. So can the products they would power. But when these batteries are made with normal paper they show a rapid degradation in their ability to hold a charge.

* Algae-cellulose fiber paper, made from a stringy variety of algae that grows in the Baltic Sea, is a better choice over the wood and cotton paper previously used as a mechanical substrate and separator membrane in polymer batteries.

o The algae paper is superior because the cellulose from algae has a very large surface area compared to wood and cotton fibers, so it will hold much more of the conducting polymer.

o When algae-paper is substituted, the batteries recharge faster, and hold up to double the charge of batteries made with normal paper, but that's still not good enough, and the technology is a long way from commercial feasibility.

Bad habits can be unlearned; good habits can be acquired; and small habits can make a big difference. This is a habit all the world needs.

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