Of all human ideas, one of the strangest is the mass-market, disposable consumer product. At a time when resources are being rapidly depleted, products are manufactured to be used once then thrown away. Some will make it into recycling, but most end up as waste.
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There's a long list of such products, with one of the earliest examples being the BIC ballpoint pen that was introduced in 1950. By 2006, 100 billion had been sold.
That has parallels with the disposable razor blade invented by King Camp Gillette in 1901. Since then it has morphed into cartridge blades.
Then there are fully disposable razors in which the entire unit is binned when it goes blunt.
A better, counter-story is the lithium-ion battery, which can be largely attributed to the American materials scientist Dr John Goodenough (1922-2023).
After serving in World War II, he earned a PhD in physics at the University of Chicago.
His groundbreaking work began in the 1970s, leading to the development of the first practical rechargeable lithium-ion battery.
Goodenough found that using lithium cobalt oxide as a cathode, greatly enhanced battery storage. He explored materials such as lithium iron phosphate and lithium manganese oxide to further improve performance.
Lithium proved to be key because its ions could shuttle between the cathode and anode of a battery, enabling efficient and reversible energy storage.
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His work paved the way for lightweight, high-energy-density batteries that power modern devices and contribute to the transition towards cleaner energy sources.
Goodenough received numerous prestigious awards, including a joint Nobel Prize in 2019.
Rechargeable batteries can be used repeatedly for several years before they need to be replaced, thereby reducing waste. They typically contain fewer metals such as mercury, lead, cadmium, nickel and silver than their disposable counterparts.
They may contain cobalt, lithium and graphite which are considered critical minerals by the United States Geological Survey.
These are raw materials that are economically and strategically important and have a high supply risk potential and for which there are no easy substitutes.
While lithium batteries are a huge improvement, the terms "reusable" and "disposable" are relative because, without effective recycling, both ultimately become waste.
It's just one example illustrating that true sustainability cannot be achieved unless we also reduce consumption.
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