{"id":146,"date":"2011-05-27T22:52:43","date_gmt":"2011-05-27T22:52:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/deadreal.com.au\/dead_things\/?p=146"},"modified":"2020-10-09T15:31:05","modified_gmt":"2020-10-09T04:31:05","slug":"when-batteries-die","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/deadreal.com.au\/dead_things\/when-batteries-die\/","title":{"rendered":"When batteries die"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/deadreal.com.au\/dead_things\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/battery.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-148\" src=\"http:\/\/deadreal.com.au\/dead_things\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/battery.jpg\" alt=\"A dead battery\" width=\"387\" height=\"516\" srcset=\"https:\/\/deadreal.com.au\/dead_things\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/battery.jpg 454w, https:\/\/deadreal.com.au\/dead_things\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/battery-225x300.jpg 225w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 387px) 100vw, 387px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Everybody has experienced a \u2018dead\u2019 battery from time to time, but this is a dead \u2018dead\u2019 battery \u2013 squashed, mangled and corroded. Not a pretty sight at all.<\/p>\n<p>Once upon a time, the humble AA battery epitomised convenience and freedom. The battery liberated light, sound, communication, time itself, making them all portable and instantly available at the flick of the switch or the turn of a dial. Now the AAs and their ilk are regarded as something akin to mini-nuclear reactors, using up precious raw materials and poisoning the soil just so Johnny can drive his remote-controlled car and Jane can play her toy piano. The single-use AA battery is a reviled beast, shunned for the very same disposable qualities that once made it so appealing \u2013 just use and chuck \u2013 even though annual global production still tops 10 billion units per year.<\/p>\n<p>I can\u2019t remember the last time I bought a single-use alkaline battery. Mostly it\u2019s now rechargeable NiMH in our household, mainly for economic rather than environmental reasons as we drain them like water through a paper bag. Rechargeable means never having to run out.<\/p>\n<p>I was surprised to see this chap lying in the laneway, probably jettisoned during garbage collection on its way to landfill as I can\u2019t imagine anybody just dumping it (although who knows\u2026). While battery recycling has yet to become widespread, there are various <a title=\"Battery recycling\" href=\"https:\/\/recyclingnearyou.com.au\/batteries\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">schemes<\/a> available &#8211; both single use and rechargeable &#8211; and certainly rechargeable batteries should never be chucked away in the household waste.<\/p>\n<p>After I picked up this dead battery to move it, my fingers tasted funny.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_147\" style=\"width: 435px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/deadreal.com.au\/dead_things\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/battery-2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-147\" class=\"size-full wp-image-147\" src=\"http:\/\/deadreal.com.au\/dead_things\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/battery-2.jpg\" alt=\"Another dead battery\" width=\"425\" height=\"567\" srcset=\"https:\/\/deadreal.com.au\/dead_things\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/battery-2.jpg 425w, https:\/\/deadreal.com.au\/dead_things\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/battery-2-225x300.jpg 225w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 425px) 100vw, 425px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-147\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">More dead batteries.<\/p><\/div>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Everybody has experienced a \u2018dead\u2019 battery from time to time, but this is a dead \u2018dead\u2019 battery \u2013 squashed, mangled and corroded. Not a pretty sight at all. Once upon a time, the humble AA battery epitomised convenience and freedom. The battery liberated light, sound, communication, time itself, making them all portable and instantly available [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":148,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"two_page_speed":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,46],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-146","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-beyond-repair","8":"category-conveyor-belt","10":"post-with-thumbnail","11":"post-with-thumbnail-icon"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/deadreal.com.au\/dead_things\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/deadreal.com.au\/dead_things\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/deadreal.com.au\/dead_things\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deadreal.com.au\/dead_things\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deadreal.com.au\/dead_things\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=146"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/deadreal.com.au\/dead_things\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5540,"href":"https:\/\/deadreal.com.au\/dead_things\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146\/revisions\/5540"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deadreal.com.au\/dead_things\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/deadreal.com.au\/dead_things\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deadreal.com.au\/dead_things\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deadreal.com.au\/dead_things\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}