Green Living Ideas
EnergyChoosing, Reusing, and Recycling Batteries
If you're interested in green living, it's important to be careful when dealing with batteries. While essential to our technologically-intensive lifestyle, batteries can cause all sorts of negative effects on the environment. When batteries are treated in opposition to green living, they may cause burns to eyes and skin, leak lead and acid. And, when batteries are burned, metals are vaporized into the air only to end up polluting lakes, streams, and ground water. As serious proponents of green living, it's vital to consider the proper choice, use, and disposal of batteries.
Choosing Batteries in Accordance with Green Living
First of all, and this may sound obvious but is an easy green living act, check to see if you have batteries before going out to buy more. Why cause more batteries to be produced than you actually need? Next, to practice green living, look for batteries with the lowest mercury and other heavy metal content. Due to regulations, alkaline battery makers have been cutting back on the amount of mercury.
Another green living alternative is to buy rechargeable batteries. They contain higher heavy metal content, but that's still worth it from a green living perspective as they can be used and reused many times before they need to be disposed of. Rechargeable batteries are the best green living way to go in most cases.
Using and Reusing Batteries for Green Living
Besides recharging batteries for reuse, there are a few other green living tips for battery use. Be sure to turn off battery-run devices when you're not using them. If you don't plan to use a device for a significant period of time, support green living by removing the batteries. Don't mix old and new batteries as they can leak or rupture, releasing harmful components. Also, for green living's sake, don't insert the batteries backward or attempt to open the battery's housing.
Green Living means Recycling those Batteries
Most batteries cannot or should not be thrown out with the trash. Contrary to green living, batteries that end up in landfills are burned, releasing harmful heavy metals into the environment. If you're not sure whether to recycle or where to recycle batteries, check with your local community recycling facility. There are also some green living websites which could direct you to a battery recycling option.
