Friday, December 5, 2008

The Alkaline Battery Hoax

Repeatedly disposing of everyday alkaline batteries is completely unnecessary. Its a perfect example of misleading the public in the interests of profit. The environmental effect and the wasted resources from this corporate lie are devastating. Sure there are cleaner methods of disposal being developed in some communities- but that doesn't fix the problem. Improve the product not its disposal; its like fixing a leaky faucet by improving the drain.

Common Batteries can be recharged as safely and effectively as "rechargeable" batteries.

Alkaline batteries all carry a label warning about leaks and explosions. Damaging a household battery is just about as dangerous and squishing a lemon- its a marketing tactic using fear. The technology to make a charger for regular alkaline batteries is incredibly simple. There once was a charger on infomercials, very briefly. I'm sure the company was shut down. There are plenty of people on the internet who have built their own chargers- look it up if you like. Personally, i can't be bothered to build one, nor do i have the right tools or skills- but if they had it at Canadian Tire i would buy one for sure. These are my choices: buy terribly over priced "rechargeable" batteries, or, since im often short on cash, buy the generic coppergizers and throw, throw, throw them away.

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