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What battery type has the least environmental impact? Question
Common general-purpose battery types available on the market today are:
- Disposable batteries, usually with some sort of zinc chemistry
- Older, generic rechargeable batteries, usually nickel chemistry and in standard formats like AA, AAA, ...
- Li-ion rechargeable batteries
Of course, rechargeable batteries tend to have worse environmental impact both in manufacturing and disposal. But then they are reusable, so you don't have to use nearly as many.
I'm curious, if your only concern is to reduce the impact of manufacture and disposal (ie. we're assuming your device will run equally well with either type and you don't care about price) then which battery type on the whole is the least harmful?
Technically, li-ion is different from the others here. Usually, li-ion batteries are integrated or have a proprietary design. However, if you look hard enough you can find li-ion batteries in formats like AA/AAA. And devices with proprietary batteries can be hooked up to a battery pack using generic battery types (laptops) or the li-ion battery pack can be converted with some DIY work to accept other batteries (power tools). To be sure, with the "other batteries" it might be tricky to provide current of sufficient quality to power your angle grinder, but lets disregard that here, and assume you're able to manage as far as using the device. Again, the question is about the impact of manufacturing and disposal of the batteries on the environment, not the impact of buying them on your wallet or lifestyle.
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