Need a "Prius batteries don't pollute" flyer to give to "deniers"

Ask him how nickel metal hydride batteries pollute. He doesn't know; he's just repeating some lie he heard from Rush Limbaugh.

 

Prox- As you may know, this is an urban myth from an old debunked article the said Hummer was cleaner than a Prius.
If you google (or search here) Hummer Prius you should get many hits re: debunks. Historically the nickel comes from Canada and, although I am not sure about recent developments, Canada has been lax on SOx regulations and I believe nickel smelting has historically been a significant source of SOx and acid rain. If we knew the weight of a Prius battery, we could calculate how much SOx and CO2 is made, and we could calculate how much CO2 is saved. We could also calculate how much SOx a Prius creates from residual sulfur in gaso to help put the SOx emissions in perspective.

On the assumption no brochure exists, let's make one.

 

Why pick a fight with a kid in a gas station? If somebody doesn't believe that Priuses are "green" then a flier isn't going to change their mind. The DNC and the RNC use fliers and "data" to support their pet causes. How is that working?
Why would knocking down a bunch of trees to make paper for these fliers look when you're advocating for the environment???
The Prius has been around for well over a decade. There can be no doubt that it's one of the greener forms of motorized personal transportation
on the planet...both kinds of "green."
If you're a bunny hugger? It's green.
If you're miserly? It's green.
The facts are so obvious that they need no explanation or justification. Providing these may actually weaken your case.
It's JMHO, but I think that the last thing that the Prius community needs is a bunch of people papering the landscape with more propaganda, be it on paper or in the virtual world.

I always tell deniers...."600 miles. 30 bucks. Next argument....

 

Remind the kid that the lead in his regular 12V battery is much worse.

 

Absolutely. You pick a fight, the kid will keep beleiving, and you will have fufilled the bad prius driver sterotype.

You could simply tell him the batteries get recycled, as does much of the nickel that probably went into them. Tell him that stainless steel also uses a lot of nickel. Educate, don't instigate.

Absolutely, don't be wasteful to prove you are not being wasteful.

Almost all of that lead was recycled. 97% of the lead in lead acid batteries is recycled from the fleet. Its worth a great deal of money.

 

32 lbs. I'm not sure what that gets you. Over 90% of the nickel mined goes into stainless steel, alloys, and electroplating. About 80% of nickel is recycled. Hopefully every one on this forum will make sure their battery is recycled, and it will offset other future mining. That makes it a very small effect on the environment. IIRC toyota now buys its nickel from china not canada., I'm not sure if the chinese mines are better or worse than the canadian ones.

 

Recycling rates of traction batteries should reach equally high levels, if not higher.

 

Environmental - Prius Wiki is a good starting point.

 

Well that was the point, that these batteries get recycled.

We simply do not have much data on prius battery recycling yet, but can assume that it will be at a high rate. The lead battery rate has decades of statistics

 

Simple question back to the "other kid" would be "Where did you hear that?" Now you've opened up an opportunity for a discussion.

 

Smile at the kid and say,"Perhaps but I get 52 MPG, how about you?"

Bob Wilson

 

I just found and posted this academic study that is VERY in depth of the total environmental impact of a gas only vehicle vs hybrid vs plug in. It considers all factors from the production, through the useable life of the vehicle all the way to disposing of the vehicle after it's life! Take what data you will.

Study of total carbon footprint from hybrid vehicles vs traditional | PriusChat

 

Probably not the best study to use. A cursory glance shows they only reaserch Lithium batteries.

As soon as the kid catches your first mistake, you have lost credibility. Keep it simple, just tell them the batteries get recycled. Nickel is also used in stainless steel, and there is a lot more nickel in stainless than in car batteries. Its easy to understand.

 

Here is a battery life cycle analysis summary by Argonne labs.
Don't know if it helps too much. Since this guy you met was questioning the battery per se, perhaps best thing to say is same as flashlight rechargable batteries NiMH and these are considered eco-friendly compared to older rechargable batteries NiCad and Pb.

http://www.transportation.anl.gov/pdfs/B/644.PDF

 

^^^
http://web.archive.org/web/20090612061919/http://www.toyota.co.jp/en/k_forum/tenji/pdf/pgr_e.pdf - it's one of the many links at the Wikia entry.