My environmental concerned friend asked me the other day what happens with the used Prius batteries which have gone bad? I didn't have an answer for her. She commented that each time there is a 'solution' for one thing, there is an adverse affect in some way or another caused by the solution. Tell me your thoughts on her concern. Maybe I will have a better response next time someone comes up with this view.
Toyota pays a bounty of $200 for the dead battery, then they recycle it. (The bounty is an assurance that it will be turned in rather than sent to a land fill.) That's all there is to it.
The Prius HV battery is almost completely recyclable. Toyota has a $200 "bounty" it will pay for a battery to recycle it. Most Gen II batteries that come out of wrecks are re-used, I think. You might want to check out Prius Myths and their Rebuttals. I'm so glad to see you have a deep sense of irony.
The price of nickel alone will ensure that these things get recycled. I seriously doubt that the $200 bounty is really necessary.
She is generally right but MANY engineers and designers are started to shy away from that paradigm and are looking towards systemic thinking and solving for pattern. "The concept of "Solving for pattern", coined by Berry in his essayof the same title, is the process of finding solutions that solve multiple problems, while minimizing the creation of new problems. The essay was originally published in the Rodale Press periodical The New Farm. Though Mr. Berry's use of the phrase was in direct reference to agriculture, it has since come to enjoy broader use throughout the design community." - from Wikipedia
Ohh, almost forgot. The planet doesn't truely need saving. Most environmental efforts are truely about saving us as a species and our current level of comfort. Nothing we do will destroy the planet or all of the life on it. Life will continue to evolve long after we are gone, which one day we will be.
The red bay forests of North Carolina covered in shiitake fungi... Your celium, mycelium, it's all Hyphae Synergy Drive...
