On Monday September 09 1996, Roy J. Tellason of (1:270/615) wrote to Chris 
Harper:
 CH>> Exide and large companies like it are doing rather large
 CH>> quantities, and are profit motivated, without reguard to the
 CH>> envirnoment.
 RJT> Wrong!  Exide uses about 80 percent recycled materials in the 
manufacture
 RJT> of their new batteries,  and it's their intention to push this to 100
 RJT> percent after a while.  Lead mines are a real environmental problem,
 RJT> particularly in some towns in Colorado where the runoff after a 
rainstorm
 RJT> ends up with putting lead into the drinking water...
 RJT> I believe that Exide and the other manufacturers involved in the use of
 RJT> products such as batteries which contain toxic materials such as lead 
are,
 RJT> for the most part,  *very* environmentally conscious.
 RJT> What do you base that statement on?
The fact that Exide has an "Inc." after it. It is incorporated, and thus is 
only profit motivated. The only reason it or any incorporation is 
environmentally concious is because of the treat of the E.P.A. coming down on 
them demanding superfund clean-up payments. That, and the fact that they can 
advertise their environmentally concious ways in hopes of gaining market 
share.
 CH>> I would just set up a still to split the water and acid from
 CH>> each other, as well as anything dissolved into it, and re-sell
 CH>> the acid to battery makers or chemical companies. Maybe use
 CH>> some myself for making my own batteries.
 RJT> That should be interesting,  what materials were you planning to use to
 RJT> construct this,  which would be resistant to sulfuric acid fumes?  I 
sure
 RJT> hope that none of the environmental government agencies are reading 
this,
 RJT> or you may end up getting a visit you're *not* gonna enjoy...
I hope they ARE, because I'll just sit there and smile while they inspect, 
knowing that I by far, exceed their stiffest regulations, with absolutely 
ZERO emmissions of hazardous materials.
As my still would be solar powered, glass will be used for it's construction 
as it is also not soluable to sulfuric acid. Ever hear of a "retort"? It's a 
small glass still, is all.
You seem to think I'll be doing a lot of this, which is not the case. I might 
do 2-3 batteries a month! Not something the EPA would even consider worth 
it's time to bother with. If the process I set up proves to work perfectly, 
and without much labor involved, I might expand it and do 5-10 a week, to 
make some small change. My main concern is with solar electric power 
generation. The batteries will be for storing it. Recycling of batteries will 
be to keep my battery costs down, as I'll be going through quite a few, on 
the scale I hope to get to. I want to eventually pump 50-100kw into them 
during a single day, so I can sell it. For this, I expect to need 200-300kw 
storage capacity, so I'll have enough to last through dark spells. But that 
is a LONG way off. I'm going to start with a 1kw setup of solar panels, and 
buy more as I'm able. First, for energy independance, then for energy 
"affluence", then to small scale sale, if all works out well, and if it works 
great, on to large scale sale. Above all, my priority is my environment, and 
it's requiring a minimum of maintenance, as I will personally be living on 
the site and handling all of the maintenance! I plan to automate everything. 
Even the nightly cleaning of the solar arrays, with "robots", if I can afford 
it!  ;-)
RYL,
    Chris
--- GoldED 2.40+
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