4 ms·

It's not a big deal if you don't care about the environment. It's about time we forget this wasteful mindset

by rakoo 4y ago

seanmcdirmid 4y ago
lithium batteries are easy and profitable to recycle. Yes, something is lost (recycling isn't free), but it isn't going to into a landfill.
- bhc 4y ago
  Less than 1 percent of Lithium-ion batteries get recycled in the US and EU. https://arstechnica.com/science/2022/04/lithium-costs-a-lot-of-money-so-why-arent-we-recycling-lithium-batteries/ https://arstechnica.com/science/2022/04/lithium-costs-a-lot-...
  - brookst 4y ago
    Do you think Apple stores recycle more or less than that 1% figure?
  - seanmcdirmid 4y ago
    I can't read the study (published in India?), but I would dispute the data. > This hasn’t worked for lithium batteries, partly because so many formats exist. “These batteries are all over the place in different sizes,” he said. A related challenge is that the technology for lithium batteries changes rapidly — every one to two years, he said. (edit: I found a working link to the article: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s41745-021-00269-7 https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s41745-021-00269-7) Apple is not throwing lithium batteries into landfills, and it is the one doing the replacement. Tesla is definitely not doing this, so what is left? Probably those lithium rechargeable batteries you can buy on Amazon?
  - kaba0 4y ago
    And how is 1% of only batteries worse than throwing away the entire phone?
warkdarrior 4y ago
So getting the battery replaced is not environmentally friendly?? What is the environmental option then?
- rakoo 4y ago
  Shopping for a phone with a better battery life out of the box, before you need to change it. I think that's what the GP wanted to say.
  - kaba0 4y ago
    Show me any lithium battery-powered device that would last longer. They are all in the same ballpark and this is simply inherent in the way this tech works. Once another battery type surfaces in mobiles this might change, but still then you won’t get any meaningful differences as there is no order of magnitude difference between even the best and worst phones in power consumption and battery capacity.
    - rakoo 4y ago
      My featurephone still gets 5 days of use without plugging in. If you say that the comparison isn't relevant, I'll say yes: the whole point is that the industry has been innovating for computing power and computing power only. Cheaper versions exist to target low price. But no work is done to target long battery life because it's not considered profitable.
      - kaba0 4y ago
        Feature phones are not running on general purpose OSs and are not capable of half the things smartphones can do. So there actually is an order of magnitude difference between energy consumption, resulting in longer battery life. But since their functionality is way different than a smartphone’s, it is akin to measuring the fuel efficiency of a horse and a car.
        rakoo 4y ago

It's not a big deal if you don't care about the environment. It's about time we forget this wasteful mindset

by rakoo 4y ago

It's not a big deal if you don't care about the environment. It's about time we forget this wasteful mindset

lithium batteries are easy and profitable to recycle. Yes, something is lost (recycling isn't free), but it isn't going to into a landfill.

bhc 4y ago
Less than 1 percent of Lithium-ion batteries get recycled in the US and EU. https://arstechnica.com/science/2022/04/lithium-costs-a-lot-of-money-so-why-arent-we-recycling-lithium-batteries/ https://arstechnica.com/science/2022/04/lithium-costs-a-lot-...
- brookst 4y ago
  Do you think Apple stores recycle more or less than that 1% figure?
- seanmcdirmid 4y ago
  I can't read the study (published in India?), but I would dispute the data. > This hasn’t worked for lithium batteries, partly because so many formats exist. “These batteries are all over the place in different sizes,” he said. A related challenge is that the technology for lithium batteries changes rapidly — every one to two years, he said. (edit: I found a working link to the article: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s41745-021-00269-7 https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s41745-021-00269-7) Apple is not throwing lithium batteries into landfills, and it is the one doing the replacement. Tesla is definitely not doing this, so what is left? Probably those lithium rechargeable batteries you can buy on Amazon?
- kaba0 4y ago
  And how is 1% of only batteries worse than throwing away the entire phone?

warkdarrior 4y ago

So getting the battery replaced is not environmentally friendly?? What is the environmental option then?

rakoo 4y ago
Shopping for a phone with a better battery life out of the box, before you need to change it. I think that's what the GP wanted to say.
- kaba0 4y ago
  Show me any lithium battery-powered device that would last longer. They are all in the same ballpark and this is simply inherent in the way this tech works. Once another battery type surfaces in mobiles this might change, but still then you won’t get any meaningful differences as there is no order of magnitude difference between even the best and worst phones in power consumption and battery capacity.
  - rakoo 4y ago
    My featurephone still gets 5 days of use without plugging in. If you say that the comparison isn't relevant, I'll say yes: the whole point is that the industry has been innovating for computing power and computing power only. Cheaper versions exist to target low price. But no work is done to target long battery life because it's not considered profitable.
    - kaba0 4y ago
      Feature phones are not running on general purpose OSs and are not capable of half the things smartphones can do. So there actually is an order of magnitude difference between energy consumption, resulting in longer battery life. But since their functionality is way different than a smartphone’s, it is akin to measuring the fuel efficiency of a horse and a car.
      - rakoo 4y ago