This makes me sad. £3 disposable* lithium batteries.
As bigclive points out, they actually contain rechargeable lithium cells:

[video]https://youtu.be/5korWqCcsHE[/video]

Every little helps (to kill the planet)

* not actually “disposable” since WEEE regulations mean you can’t just bin batteries. I’m sure everyone buying these will dispose of them correctly at a proper WEEE-approved battery recycling bin.

Madness! With all the good ways to charge a phone (wall charger, car charger, usb desk sockets and power banks to name a few) this really is a product for the world’s laziest and least organized.

And as you note an environmentally reckless one. Wonder how that fits with Tesco’s corporate responsibility.

That looks handy. Nice find op.

How about a ‘disposable’ DAB radio – ok, not actually disposable but a DAB portable, with headphones and rechargeable battery. Delivered (supposedly), for £1

Complete with mis-spelled power button.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/WalkRadio-radio-portable-Player-Micro-x/dp/B074142HGR/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1502699726&sr=8-1&keywords=WalkRadio+K1%2CDAB+radio

How is it any different to normal disposable batteries? It just has a mini usb bit added.

How about a ‘disposable’ DAB radio – ok, not actually disposable but a DAB portable, with headphones and rechargeable battery. Delivered (supposedly), for £1

Complete with mis-spelled power button.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/WalkRadio-radio-portable-Player-Micro-x/dp/B074142HGR/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1502699726&sr=8-1&keywords=WalkRadio+K1%2CDAB+radio

Just me or has that just gone up to £29.90?

How odd, No it’s not just you. I looked at the link 5 mins ago and it was a quid, now saying £29.90. Maybe they base the price on number of page views.

How is it any different to normal disposable batteries?

Exactly.

That would be really handy to put in a camelbak in case of emergencies. Thanks op.

How is it any different to normal disposable batteries?

An alkaline AA has a capacity of around 2500mAh. These are about a fifth of that.

Normal AA batteries can be recycled to some degree.

These contain lithium which is environmentally messy to mine, as well as electronics, plastic and foil. They can’t be easily recycled.

More to the point they are grossly wasteful solution to the problem. The battery could be recharged in these if the design allowed it.

In fact you could pick up a rechargeable Poundland power bank with more capacity and less money and that would come with some charge in it.

Just me or has that just gone up to £29.90?

No, for me too. I can’t believe anyone can actually ship one of those to me for a £1 but i’ve got one on order.

I thought lithium mining was pretty green, brine pumped out and dried by the sun, 95% solar energy to extract or something.

The smaller amounts of alluminium & copper in the battery having a much bigger footprint.

How odd, No it’s not just you. I looked at the link 5 mins ago and it was a quid, now saying £29.90. Maybe they base the price on number of page views.

Doesn’t Amazon have some fancy variable pricing algorithm, so whenever you see a bargain PSA’ed on Amazon by the time you click on it it’s a different price (happens all the time from Bikebargains).

Saw them in a large high street chain next to the tills and left everything I was planning to buy next to them in disgust.

It’s the battery equivalent of Donald Trump – pointless, stupid, and wasteful.

Algorithmic pricing on Amazon can go both ways….

http://www.michaeleisen.org/blog/?p=358

According to the person I first saw the radio through there were at least 75 sales at £1 (he was on an affiliate link but not much profit in it for him)…

I thought lithium mining was pretty green, brine pumped out and dried by the sun, 95% solar energy to extract or something.

Extraction from brine uses large amounts of water, typically in places where there isn’t much in the first place such as salt plains. There is also a fair bit of acid and chemical washing.

Lithium ion batteries also contain nickel and cobalt which have their own impacts.

https://www.ft.com/content/8342ec6c-5fde-11e7-91a7-502f7ee26895

Naughty – I think you’re one of those who should know better that the correct measure of battery capacity isn’t the amount of charge it holds, but the amount of energy. The capacity of an alkaline AA is about 3Wh, whilst the capacity of that LiIon cell is about 2.2Wh. Meanwhile that cell is significantly smaller and lighter than an alkaline AA.

The issue as you identify is using a rechargeable battery in a disposable application – I’m going to whataboutery though, as there are far, far bigger issues to worry about than the waste from using a LiIon battery in that application, where as the video suggests from a cost POV it’s not actually a bad solution.

I would be quite tempted to get one to repurpose were it not for your handy PSA for the Poundland one – now that would be very useful.

Naughty

I did wonder if I’d get pulled up on that 😆

Yeah it’s obviously not a fair comparison as the voltages they deliver are completely different. From memory I think an AA is only a nominal 1.5v.

I just find the whole thing rather repulsive though. Spending money and creating more toxic electronic waste just to give your phone maybe a 20-30% boost so you can post a few more photos of your dinner and cat on Instagram.

Especially when the waste produced is very unlikely to be disposed of correctly or recycled and there are loads of readily available rechargeable reusable alternatives.

I’d much rather see them do something like EE tried to do: power sticks where they swap a discharged one for a charged one in store.

I think grahams has hit the point here though. whilst alkaline batteries and others are ultimately disposed of, people are generally aware they are valuable and should be used and disposed of responsibly. This on the other hand is keenly marketing a mined resource with a reasonably high environmental cost as a new throw-away product, for just two hours of Facebook fun time. We don’t need new throw away products!

That is what’s normally quoted, whilst a LiIon is nominally 3.7V. But just as an aside (this is one of my bugbears), that’s using completely different definition for nominal voltage – the nominal voltage quoted for disposable batteries is the voltage when fully charged, whilst for rechargeables it’s the voltage mid-discharge. I suppose I should use 4.2V for the “disposable” LiIon on that basis, though for doing calcs it’s better to use the mid-discharge voltage of the alkaline, which is ~1.2V, much the same as NiMH.

I just find the whole thing rather repulsive though.

It is, but I’m struggling to raise my piss above the temperature of a warm bath, even when only compared with other consumer waste involved in portable electronics (says the man about to dispose of a smartphone which is less than 4 years old – though that’s probably still older than what most of you lot have).

😯 – I’m betting more go into landfill than recycling.

I agree they are not a good product, but they are a symptom of a wider set of problems including mobile phone dependency, but also phone design, my first phone came with a spare battery the was easy to swap out. Surely phones that are sealed units and do not have enough capacity to actually work for 24 hours on 1 charge are the reason this market exists. Coupled with a willful ignorance or worse, people dont actually care, if it makes their life in this moment easier.

says the man about to dispose of a smartphone which is less than 4 years old – though that’s probably still older than what most of you lot have

Still proudly/obstinately struggling along with an iPhone 4S here – first released Oct 2011. 😆

When I do finally chuck it then it will be to a reuse/recycling place such as Envirofone.

I’m betting more go into landfill than recycling.

Quite likely, there is still a lot of consumer ignorance on this – but my local Spar has a battery recycling bin that seems to regularly be full and we have one at work that we are required to use.