Battery chargers, Solar, and Rechargeable
Welcome
to eco-battery.com. We are pleased to offer a wide variety of information
about batteries, the technology, and their various uses. You can also
find relevant information about the ecological damage traditional batteries
cause to the environment and the reasons the search for a more Earth-friendly
solution is on-going.
Batteries power many, if not all, of the appliances you use every day.
At its most basic, a battery is a connected series of two or more electrochemical
cells that store and generate chemical energy and make it available
as electrical energy. Physicist Alessandro Volta created the modern
battery in 1800, now referred to as voltaic piles.
Batteries are made to be either disposable or rechargeable. The types
of electrochemical cells include flow cells, galvanic cells, electrolytic
cells, fuel cells, and voltaic piles. Heavy metals lead, mercury, and
cadmium are all used in the manufacture of batteries.
Batteries have become one of the most expensive and wasteful (albeit
convenient and portable) sources of energy. Due to the rampant and unrestricted
use of batteries, toxic metal pollution has become a global environmental
issue. To reduce the amount of disposable batteries ending up in landfills,
some companies have implemented recycling programs to recover valuable
elements and safely dispose of the toxic parts.
Here in the 21st Century, cell phone batteries, laptop computer batteries,
camcorder batteries, camera batteries, and battery chargers have become
absolutely essential in America, if not all over the world. Watches,
cars, clocks, mp3 players: all powered by batteries.
Take peoples’ portable power away from them and there could be
serious insurrections all over the place. However this does little to
change the reality that humanity’s increased usage of these products
has created some serious amounts of dangerous waste.
Inform, Inc. reports that in America alone, approximately 179,000 TONS
of batteries are thrown away every year and about 14,000 tons of those
are rechargeable. Inform offers the following tips to reducing battery
waste:
• Buy products that eliminate or minimize battery use.
• When buying battery-powered devices, avoid unneccessay luxuries
(such as full-color screens on a PDA or a cell phone that also doubles
as an mp3 player).
• Choose rechargeable batteries for all appropriate applications.
• Look for and buy products that can be powered using rechargeables.
• Maintain your batteries (when not in use, remove batteries from
devices you don’t use as often).
• Try reusing batteries in low-drain devices (if the battery in
your digital camera – a high-drain device) dies, try using it
in your television remote control, etc.)