Batteries Bad for Earth, Bad for Budgets

No one warned me that becoming a parent would make me the biggest consumer of batteries on earth.

Swings, bouncy seats, music-playing mobiles and monitors all require disposable batteries and use them up with astounding speed. That's on top of the other things in the house, like flashlights, remote controls, a wireless keyboard and mouse and so on, that need batteries. All told, I find myself in Radio Shack(RSH Quote) almost monthly to get 12-packs of AAA and AA batteries. And we haven't even entered the stage of battery-powered toys yet.

According to the GreenYour ... Web site, Americans buy some 3 billion batteries a year, or 32 per household. About two-thirds of these wind up in the trash, where cadmium, nickel and lead can leach from landfills into groundwater or be released into the air and water during incineration. ...