Batteries have become more important in the past two decades for two fundamental reasons. In the first instance, they are an essential component of renewable energy. In the second, we need backup power as the weather becomes more extreme. Your introduction to the world of batteries begins at the basic level of their various active materials. And it will end with a plea to recycle every battery you can.
Why This Introduction to the World of Batteries
We publish this article to establish one simple point. And that is that the materials in the earth are in limited supply. We can’t continue extracting them at great expense, using them once, and then dumping them in landfills.
The active materials in question are all metals of one or another kind. The eight metals on the list include cadmium, lead, lithium, manganese, mercury, nickel, silver, and zinc. Some of these metals, like lead are still relatively abundant. However, extracting them adds to global warming because of the carbon that mining releases to the atmosphere.
Carelessly dumping batteries in landfills causes even more destruction to our environment. That’s because rainfall can distribute the noxious chemicals throughout the earth, where they find a way into rivers, and finally into the oceans. Those chemicals can harm life in all its abundant forms on their journey. Even humans are not exempt from injury from them.
The Primary and Secondary Batteries in Our Lives
In the second half of the 20th century, most batteries were primary, single-use ones. The only notable exception was the lead batteries in our automobiles. All the rest in our flashlights, radios and and so on were of the throwaway variety, and nobody really cared what happened to them.
That situation has changed since then, as people living in more advanced nations switch to rechargeable batteries. However the upfront cost is too much to bear for people living hand-to-mouth in informal settlements. And so we continue to live in a world of two types of batteries. And we will for some time to come.
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