Well, this is a bit of an ecologic disaster. It's another singe-use product that seems to contain a fully rechargeable lithium cell.
I can understand why they did it, since lithium ion cells have a very high energy density and are cheap to mass produce, but it still seems a terrible thing to make a disposable item that could be reused 1000 times if it had been designed around a standard power bank chip and fitted with a recharge socket.
On a plus note, for people like us it's a handy source of a decent capacity lithium cell for a low price on the high street. Note that this cell will be a typical low current cell and is not recommended for use in a high current drain application like a drone.
I have recharged the cell in one of these units completely without incident and believe them to be standard rechargeable cells, but as it's not specifically sold as being rechargeable the usual precautions should be taken when experimenting with lithium cells. the cell is bare and would require external overcharge protection.
It's interesting to note that the original manufacturer of these (Hopepower) also does a dual connector version that suits both Apple and Android devices, and does a very similar rechargeable version.
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There’s something more, though. Disposables consumerism is a creature of the past few decades. Take something similar: soft drink bottles. They used to be glass that was rinsed and reused. Now they are either single use or inefficiently recycled. From what I can tell, the main driver is that producers don’t pay for waste management.
An addendum to my doom and gloom: there is a company, Loop, that is working on container reuse. So far they’re pretty small and have a limited catalogue of containers, but they have interests from some big players in the markets they’re active in. Tesco is on the list, so maybe they can even add this product.
Convenience above all else, the cornerstone of capitalism.
There’s something more, though. Disposables consumerism is a creature of the past few decades. Take something similar: soft drink bottles. They used to be glass that was rinsed and reused. Now they are either single use or inefficiently recycled. From what I can tell, the main driver is that producers don’t pay for waste management.
An addendum to my doom and gloom: there is a company, Loop, that is working on container reuse. So far they’re pretty small and have a limited catalogue of containers, but they have interests from some big players in the markets they’re active in. Tesco is on the list, so maybe they can even add this product.