Living Like Ed by Ed Jr. (whitelam books .txt) 📗

batteries instead of disposables. I’ve been using rechargeable batteries since 1978, and I’m glad they’re good for the environment. That’s the reason I did it. But what I quickly learned is that they’re really good for my pocketbook. I wasn’t buying as many Duracells, as many Energizers, as many Rayovacs. I just wasn’t buying as many batteries.

Back in those days, the rechargeable batteries were nickel-cadmium. Cadmium, of course, is an element that has to be disposed of properly. I never once threw one in the trash. I would save them and take them to the hazardous waste disposal site.

I must say, those old rechargeable batteries would conk out on you much quicker than today’s batteries. Today’s batteries, as we know, are much more advanced. They’re nickel-metal hydride, they’re lithium-ion batteries. They work much better.

Why? Because, sadly, those old nickel-cadmium batteries were like people. They remembered how you treated them. If you didn’t fully charge or discharge them, they didn’t like that, and they never got a full charge again. So nobody’s buying nickel-cadmium for anything anymore.

The standard has long since changed to nickel-metal hydride, and now you can get even more watts per kilogram from lithium-ion and others, like lithium-titanate batteries, which are wonderful.

I’m working with a company called Altairnano, which has these wonderful lithium-titanate batteries that don’t have the challenges that other lithium-ion batteries have. They don’t heat up. They just don’t have those safety and other problems. Those are the batteries in my Phoenix Motorcars electric truck, and I’m hoping they’ll become available for other applications soon.

Rechargeable batteries in general are just much better than nonrechargeable ones because all batteries are toxic. But rechargeable batteries last longer. They’re better for the environment in that way, and they put money in your pocket.

People say, “Oh, these rechargeable batteries, they’re toxic!”

What is a Duracell? An Energizer? A Rayovac? These have toxic elements, too. You can’t throw those in the trash. But people feel very free to throw those little Coppertops away. You can’t throw them away. They’re toxic. You’re supposed to dispose of them properly. And see how quickly you fill up a shoe box with batteries if you’re not buying rechargeable.

Beyond that, you have options that require no batteries at all. As we’ve known for many, many years, you can store power in a capacitor. I have these flashlights that I sell on my website. You shake them up. It’s the Faraday principle: A magnet passes through the coil, and electrons are generated. But where are those electrons stored? In a battery? No, not in this device. They’re stored in a capacitor. And so you turn on the light—which is not a lightbulb; it’s an LED, a light-emitting diode—and you have wonderful light whenever you need it. And it’s stored not in a battery, which will wear out over time, but in a capacitor, which has a far, far longer life expectancy. So it’s a much better choice for something you’d need in an emergency—like a flashlight—and for so many other reasons. It’s another very good way to go.

So Many Ways to Recycle

So now we’ve come up with dozens—if not hundreds—of things that you can recycle. Glass jars and their lids. Cardboard boxes. Laundry detergent bottles. Eyeglasses. Newspapers. Aluminum cans. Toys. Even a tattered old throw rug. And we’ve come up with dozens more recycled products that you can buy. Things you’d buy anyway, without even having to choose recycled products—things like cans of soda and bottles of juice, like a newspaper. And then there are all those things you can specifically seek out that are made using postconsumer waste, such as recycled office paper and file folders and toilet paper and outdoor furniture.

All of these recycling efforts provide benefits on so many levels. They reduce the amount of stuff going into landfills. They reduce the need to use up new natural resources. And they reduce the amount of energy spent mining those resources—often in distant locales—and the amount of energy spent transporting those resources to the United States to be made into whatever it is we think we need.

So now let’s take a look at energy from a different angle. Let’s look at ways to create energy in an environmentally friendly manner, as well as ways to reduce your need for energy from outside sources.

When an aluminum can gets recycled and made into a new can, it can wind up back on a grocery store shelf in just 90 days. Now that’s efficient.

A landfill is a place to sweep waste conveniently under the rug.

Another sad side effect of landfills is their impact on wildlife

Nowadays, it’s cheaper to replace a lot of things than it is to repair them.

Today, there are nearly nine thousand curbside recycling programs across the United States. And as a nation, we recycle 32 percent of our waste.

While there may be inefficiencies in recycling programs, the solution is to make each and every recycling program more efficient.

Just because some-thing can’t go in your curbside recycling bin doesn’t mean it can’t be recycled.

All kinds of thing can’t go in your curbside recycling bin doesn’t mean it can’t be recycled. All kinds of resources make it possible to recycle almost everything.

Recycling just one aluminum can saves enough energy to run a television set for three hours. Steel recycling saves enough energy each year to provide a year’s worth of electricity for about one-fifth of all U.S. house holds.

Recycling just a single glass jar or bottle saves enough energy to light a standard 100-watt lightbulb for four hours.

If every single morning newspaper in the United States were recycled, we’d save 41,000 trees a day. And we’d avoid sending 6 million tons of waste to landfills.

Each year, Americans generate 1.6 million tons of household hazardous waste.

According to the EPA, 50 percent of all paper, 34 percent of all plastic soft drink bottles, 45 percent of all aluminum beer and soft drink cans, 63 percent of all steel packaging, and 67 percent of all