8 Ways to Green Your Battery Use
This story is part of Earth911’s “Green Eight” series, where we showcase eight ways to green your life in various areas.
You may not realize how often you use batteries until you have to operate for a few hours without electricity. Batteries are great at keeping a charge in our mobile devices, but the components that help generate these charges wreak havoc in landfills.
You can use Earth911’s recycling locator to find out where to recycle batteries. Here’s eight ways to optimize your battery use so you’ll create less waste in the first place:
1. Replace One at a Time
So your device stopped working, and it takes four AA batteries. Looks like you’ve got to buy four new batteries and dispose of four as well. Actually, only one of the batteries may be dead. If you invest in a battery-tester, you can find out which batteries have no charge left and only replace those. Some batteries even come with a tester on the cell itself. If they end up needing to be tossed, check out mail-back programs for all your battery recycling needs.
2. Embrace Heavy Metal
In most circumstances, searching for a product with less hazardous materials is more eco-friendly. In the case of batteries, hazardous ingredients increase your chances of finding recycling options. Consider:
- Car batteries contain lead and sulfuric acid and have a recycling rate around 90 percent.
- Single-use dry cell batteries have been gutted of mercury in recent years, and it’s now much more difficult to find locations that recycle them than rechargeables (which contain cadmium).
If your batteries have elements like lead, mercury or lithium, there will be more value to a recycler that can reprocess these metals. Just make sure they are kept out of the reach of children and pets in the meantime.
3. Laptops Aren’t for Laps
Keeping the battery cool will help extend its lifespan
You already know that batteries and heat do not get along together. Well, your computer generates a fair amount of heat internally, which is why your notebook computer comes with a fan. Using your laptop on a soft surface (such as your lap) restricts air flow and actually heats up your battery. You can also invest in a cooling pad if you want to use a notebook on soft surfaces.
4. Keep Your Batteries Cool
You may have heard that putting batteries in the fridge or freezer will make them last longer. While this may be the case, you’ll have to let the batteries thaw before using them to avoid condensation in your devices. Regardless, you should avoid storing batteries in hot places, because they could leak fluid.
5. Wait for Good Reception
“Can you hear me now?” That’s good for more than just your phone manners. When your cell phone has low reception, it uses more battery power to search for stronger signals. Waiting for better reception will allow your cell phone battery to last longer.
6. Insulate Your Car Battery
Think about it: your car experiences more temperature fluctuations than anything else in your life. It deals with hot and cold driving weather, gets heated up and cooled down on every trip and ends up stored in a poorly-insulated garage for the night (if it’s lucky).
You can find insulation blankets to allow car batteries to adjust better to all kinds of temperatures. The next time you’re under the hood, check to see if your battery is insulated or have a qualified professional check for you.
7. Crank Up Your Batteries
The days of hand cranks to generate power went out with draft cards and freedom marches. Or did they? You can actually find hand-cranks to charge up all sorts of devices, such as cell phones and mp3 players. You’ll also get a little exercise. Another option is charging your gadgets with solar power. These are both forms of renewable energy so you won’t have to use non-renewable electricity to power your batteries.
8. Opt for Plugging In
Many devices will come equipped with battery compartments and an A/C power adapter, including some alarm clocks and lamps. You may be saving energy by working off batteries, but you’re also producing waste when the batteries die. Don’t forget you have to spend energy to recharge batteries as well. If you have the option, plugging in will use less resources.
Green Your Battery Use | Got2BeGreen
posted on November 6th, 2008 at 6:36 pm
[...] Source 1, 2 Previous:« Confessions of a Water Conservationist Next: Filed under Greening Your Home, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Tips on November 6, 2008 – [...]
:ppp
posted on December 5th, 2008 at 10:33 am
wow i didint know that it wastes your fone battery by trying to use it in a no reception areas
but know i do!!
:DDDD
Pat
posted on December 11th, 2008 at 4:53 am
Love your articles. What about solar batteries used in solar lites outside are their solar batteries that can be recharged? thanks
perian mcbee
posted on December 11th, 2008 at 7:42 am
why cant we get the government or how do we get the government more involved in recycling computers, when there is a company, microsoft, intell, dell ect,,,,,,,, and giving tax cuts if they build a recycling facilities, for old, obsolete, electronic waste????????? It would help with jobs, and waste….. Why dont we have recycle bens through out major cities,,,,, plastics, papers,cans, and glass, How do we write to Al Gore, or Bobby Kennedy, our new man for enviromental cabnet? And one more thing……..Can we start a new store, Not Made In China????????? I really look now, where things are made,,,,,,,Hobby lobby (made in china) Walmart(made in china)
George
posted on December 11th, 2008 at 9:33 am
Hi,
You mention in one of your point ‘Car batteries contain lead and sulfuric acid and have a recycling rate around 90 percent.’ Could you explain what you mean by ‘…recycling rate around 90%’ ? Thanks a lot!
P.S. Congrats on promoting nature friendly sites like this one. Good job!
snail
posted on January 2nd, 2009 at 12:21 pm
“recycle rate of 90 percent” likely means that 90 percent of the batteries produced and consumed will be recycled.
Another tip relating to plugging in. Plug in your laptop and take out the battery.
Charging will occur if the battery is in place and this will make the battery less effective when needed.
Use only when moving from outlet to outlet or when no outlets are available.
snail
posted on January 2nd, 2009 at 12:24 pm
I have a question about nonrechargable batteries: AA, AAA, C, D 9V and other household batteries: where do you recycle these? They are likely to leak upon rupture or heating which is how much “waste” is dealt with.
This is not good for the water, air, or ground it could be leaked onto or released into.
Where are facilities to reuse these batteries, reclaim materials, or if possible, recharge them?
Raquel Fagan
posted on January 5th, 2009 at 10:36 am
Hey Snail,
The best option for battery recycling, in my opinion, is mail-in programs. We have a whole page dedicated to mail-in programs. Check out the Battery & Mercury section as well as the Mixed Items section. My favorite program is Battery Solutions, because it seems like they take almost every common battery type there is. Hope this helps, and happy recycling!!
Shelley
posted on January 6th, 2009 at 4:47 pm
Where can I find the other articles where you “showcase eight ways to green your life in various areas?
Raquel Fagan
posted on January 6th, 2009 at 5:40 pm
You can see the rest of the Green 8 Series on our archive page. Enjoy!
Jim
posted on January 11th, 2009 at 11:44 pm
Don’t to forget to unplug you charges after recharging your batteries. In fact any of these little transformers to power various items, like modems, printers, ect. use up power when desk top computer is NOTon. Even some radios and/or other electronic equipment with AC cords never turn off the internal transformer when you turn it off. I have put power bars, switches (like foot switches), and electric timers on all kinds of transformers in and outside my house. Every bit helps.
Ownagenub
posted on January 12th, 2009 at 2:30 pm
hi i like green stuff XD
jessica mendoza
posted on February 10th, 2009 at 12:22 pm
love it
jessica mendoza
posted on February 10th, 2009 at 12:24 pm
AND ALL THESE YEARS I NEVER KNEW YOU COULD RECYLCE BATTERIES!
rgiul
posted on February 27th, 2009 at 2:59 pm
A note about cell phone use. Shut off your bluetooth when you don’t need it. Leaving your bluetooth on uses a lot of power. You may be able to double your battery life with it off. If you find it a pain in the neck to have to turn on bluetooth prior to using your headset and then shutting it off, consider using a scheduler. Depending on the cell phone there are applications that you can install that will manage your bluetooth for you. You could have the bluetooth turn on at 6am for your morning commute, turn off at 10 am while you are at work, turn on again at 5pm to 7pm for your drive home. This way it is only running for a couple of hours a day instead of 24/7
Adam Ballai
posted on March 27th, 2009 at 2:46 pm
Rgiul, definitely good advice. Especially with those 3g iPhone’s, the data service being on all the time drains power even when you’re not using it. I shut my phone off at night before bed so I don’t drain the battery excessively and can save the power for the next day.
batteries
posted on April 30th, 2009 at 1:06 am
Definitely good advice. Thank you!
Bill M.
posted on May 22nd, 2009 at 9:08 am
When your alkaline batteries seem to be exhausted remove them from the device they will no longer run and put them in your wall clock. Often your wall clock will run for as much as an extra year. I never need to buy wall clock batteries.
samhain
posted on June 3rd, 2009 at 2:36 pm
No one seems to be listening to perian mcbee even though this person might have a very good idea? Why is it always left TO THE CONSUMER to stay green when we should be pressuring the government/major companies to do more to make things green. Think about it if the government and most major companies woudl eliminate pollutants from items US consumers would be able to have a much larger impact when we do our share. Makes sense?
It’s called “thinking outside the box” of what they tell us to do.
Josh
posted on July 2nd, 2009 at 11:32 am
About a year ago I had to do some research on battery recycling. One of the conditions of the job was specifically alkaline (single-use) batteries. Now, what I discovered is that you can send alkaline batteries wherever you want… there are take-back programs all over… however, NONE of those single-use, alkaline batteries actually get recycled! They get shipped to foreign countries with poor or no regulation to be incinerated, resulting in 100% pollution from these things. (Google “toxic waste trade”) AT BEST they are segregated and held with other household hazardous waste in some shed on a landfill site. How often do we find that our ‘little bit’ that we do to help is really a bait-and-switch… NOTHING is being done, just the public is FOOLED into thinking something is being done. The person who contracted me to do this research actually thought I was lying to them! “Radio Shack takes my alkaline batteries every time I go in there!” But if you ask the person who actually HANDLES that battery bin, the single-use alkalines are pulled out and tossed right in the trash, or sold for pennies a pound to a toxic waster trader to be burned in some Vietnamese village cookfire (contaminating the entire place). So wouldn’t it be better to entice folks to boycott alkalines altogether? It is this kind of misdirection that makes it possible for folks like Fuji to market the ‘enviromax,’ the famous ‘green’ battery that is only green because the wrapper is made from recycled cardboard.
Rosemarie
posted on August 25th, 2009 at 11:59 am
So Josh- what are we to do with the batteries? I’ve heard the same thing can happen with cell phones etc and to be very wary about which company you use to recycle those. Sounds like the mail in sites are a rip off. Do we trash these and tapes the ends? What do we do?
Tom
posted on October 7th, 2009 at 12:51 pm
Take your old batteries to your nearest Batteries Plus store. They will accept them, and they will be properly
recycled!
To find a location nearest you, visit http://www.batteriesplus.com
lpederson
posted on October 20th, 2009 at 2:39 pm
I work at the Northern Great Lakes Visitor Center in Northern Wisconsin. These tips are great. Could I use this article as part of our Center’s education and put it in the Green Team Newsletter?