📑 Unraveling the Secret Origins of an AmazonBasics Battery

Sarah Emerson reflects on her experience with the AmazonBasics Battery. In the process she follows the thread back to a Fujitsu factory in Indonesia. Although there are is not concrete data in regards to the environmental impact, she makes an effort to put the pieces of the puzzle back together. For example, she discusses a paper co-authored by Jay Turner and Leah Nugent, in which they argued that:

It takes more than 100 times the energy to manufacture an alkaline battery than is available during its use phase.” And when the entirety of a battery’s emissions are added up — including sourcing, production, and shipping — its greenhouse gas emissions are 30 times that of the average coal-fired power plant, per watt-hour.

Other than the problem that companies are not required to log such informed, Emerson also highlights that the impact is often only focued on the disposal of the item.