Recharge Your Holiday Season: Say No to Old Batteries

By: Rachel Tanis
There are lots of ways to green your holiday season this year. You can opt for recycled wrapping paper, and then take what you use to be recycled. You can save gift bags, ribbons and bows to be re-used later on. Better yet, instead of using paper or plastic gift bags, you can “wrap” all of your holiday gifts in reusable fabric grocery bags. They won’t be hard to find either. It seems that everyone from Home Depot to Wal-mart is selling them near the checkout this year.

But, if you choose to adopt just one earth friendly change for this holiday season, I’ll like to suggest a good choice. This is the time of year when everyone goes crazy snapping up pictures of family and friends. The poses will be everything from candid gift opening frenzies to posed family portraits in front of the fireplace. Yes, this is the season of flashbulbs. It is also the season for purchasing camera batteries. Wander into the corner pharmacy or mega box retailer and you will find, situated somewhere near the entrance, a mountainous display of batteries. I don’t know about yours, but my camera battery runs over ten bucks. They aren’t cheap. Nor do they last very long. So this year, save yourself some cash and do something good for the environment. Buy a rechargeable battery for your camera. Costco and Sam’s Club both have great deals on boxed sets of rechargeable batteries in all different sizes, along with the recharging station.

Batteries are terrible for the environment. They don’t decompose like other household does, such as toilet paper or banana peels. Plus, the materials inside of a battery can be harmful to water supplies, soils and human exposure. Dealing with battery waste is a major issue for environmentalists and waste management companies alike.

So, of all the decisions you have this year, choose to keep one more pair of AAA’s out of the landfill, and buy rechargeable batteries for your camera.