Reporting from CES 2009 in Las Vegas - Being/thinking/living green is so … 2008. But the trend lives on as consumers (hopefully) readjust their lives to be kinder to the earth. So, it’s no surprise that Green is a big theme with this year’s Consumer Electronics Show. The official Las Vegas event, which opens at the Las Vegas Convention Center on Thursday, even will have a “Sustainable Planet” exhibit area. 

Fuji and its new EnviroMax alkaline batteries was the first green product I spotted. But how green are they, I dared to ask.  Jerome Pruett, with Team Fuji, gave me the spiel. 

Green packaging? Check.

Green manufacturing? Of course — in the world’s only eco-friendly battery manufacturing plant in Indonesia (a factoid I have not verified myself). Approximately 92 percent of the materials used in building the plant were recycled and reused from elsewhere. Additionally, no ozone depleting compounds were used in manufacturing the batteries.

Green batteries?  The batteries are free of Cadmium, Mercury and PVC, which means you can toss them in the trash when you’re done, Pruett said. Really, I asked? I thought all batteries must be dumped at a hazardous waste center. Not these ones, he replied. “These are totally earth friendly.” On the packaging, it says EnviroMax are landfill safe. 

Now, I didn’t delve into the actual technology of what makes these batteries so special. But consumers may be interested to learn that Fuji says EnviroMax batteries last 13 percent longer than regular batteries and have seven times the shelf life.

I left with a free sample — a 4-pack of AA batteries. The ‘Best Before’ date says July 2015. The batteries should be available by Earth Day for the same price as normal batteries. But if you want my free sample, I’m giving them away. Just submit a comment on this post and on my return from CES, I’ll randomly pick a winner.

From around the web:

Green Batteries: Responsible, renewable energy

The Alkaline-Manganese Battery (The Florida State University, the University of Florida, and the Los Alamos National Laboratory)

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.