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Environmental Cost of Hybrids' Battery Recycling?
LostMyBeaver writes "I have been considering the purchase of an electric or hybrid vehicle for some time. The biggest problem I have currently is that both technologies make use of rechargable batteries. The same tree-huggers telling me gasoline is bad are telling me that batteries are bad too. I'm only partially knowledgable in this area, but it appears the battery technologies are generally based at least on lithium ion, nickel metal hydride, lead acid and nickel-cadmium. I was hoping someone on Slashdot would be knowledgable enough to explain the environmental cost of recycling these batteries. If I understand correctly, after these chemicals are 'spent' so the cells no longer maintain a charge, they are not useful for producing new batteries. I can only imagine that the most common method of recycling the cells is to store the toxic chemicals of the batteries in barrels and refilling the cells with new chemicals. This sounds like an environmental disaster to me. Is there someone here that can help me sleep better at night by explaining what really happens?"
According to Toyota, since the Prius first went on sale in 2000, they have not replaced a single battery for wear and tear.
And they won't. All Toyota have been doing is advising prius owners to use their car as a small gasoline-only vehicle. The devil's in the wording.
Doesn't mean the batteries are truly lasting, just that Toymotor aren't replacing them.
I hate the term environmentally friendly. I hate it not because I think it's ok to kill off entire species but because the term is tossed around as the biggest guilt trip ever devised. Use water... you're not environmentally friendly. Exhale CO2 and you aren't environmentally friendly. Raise a cow... your polluting our skys with methane. Eat the cow to end the methane agony... you just killed a species! OMG NOZ!
The environmentalists will never be happy unless you dig yourself a shallow grave*, curl up, and die.
*Better make sure to move any protected species first.
"The same tree-huggers telling me gasoline is bad are telling me that batteries are bad too."
Yes; and anything *else* that even remotely hints of technology will automatically be bad as well, to those fruitcakes.
Trust me; the only thing the tree-huggers will be satisfied with is you squatting naked on a tree branch, listening to the wolves singing in the night.
Regards;