Regular Paleblue customers know that our company was founded partly out of a desire to promote sustainability and environmental responsibility. Our company founders were concerned to learn how many disposable batteries are purchased and thrown away every year. They decided that creating a better rechargeable battery – one that can be recharged using a USB cable – could encourage people to stop buying single-use batteries and buy rechargeables instead.

Our ideals have not changed over the years. We still believe in being responsible with the environment. We continue to be big proponents of sustainability and are finding new ways to create positive impacts. To that end, we have put together a list of five easy ways we can all contribute to sustainability. None of us can save the planet by ourselves. Collectively though, we can do great things.

1. Start with Your Batteries

The obvious place for us to start the discussion is with batteries. After all, that is our business. Replacing single-use alkaline batteries with rechargeable lithium-ion products does a couple of things. First and foremost, it keeps all of those single-use batteries out of landfills. Remember that one lithium-ion battery can be recharged 1,000 times or more. For every Paleblue battery you purchase, you could be keeping 999 single-use batteries out of your local landfill.

Second, manufacturing fewer batteries should mean fewer resources consumed to keep our electronic devices working. If everyone switched to lithium-ion batteries, imagine the resources we could save, resources that would otherwise go into manufacturing billions of single-use batteries.

2. Recycle What You Can

It is no secret that curbside recycling programs have never achieved the lofty goals promised 30 and 40 years ago. Still, you can do your part to recycle whatever your community trash hauler is willing to take. Be diligent to throw only approved recyclables in your recycling container. If you contaminate the container with non-recyclables, you are contaminating the entire load in the truck.

You can also recycle your batteries by taking them to any location willing to accept them. Hardware stores, department stores, and many other outlets have signed up to be battery recycling centers. Go online to search for one your area.

3. Reuse and Repurpose

There are things we throw away that can be reused or repurposed. A good way to preserve landfill space and reduce the energy used in manufacturing processes is to reuse and re-purpose more. For example, you can reuse those plastic grocery bags many times before they rip. There's no need to throw them away after one use and then turn around and collect more on your next shopping trip.

4. Opt for Reusable Containers

Next up, we can all opt for reusable containers. Instead of getting a new paper cup with every morning visit to the coffee shop, take a travel mug from home. If your coffee shop is like most others, they will not balk at filling your travel mug rather than sending you off with yet another disposable cup.

5. Choose Concentrates and Refillable Containers

When it comes to things like cleaning products, choose concentrates and refillable containers. A concentrate is a product you mix with water to get the right ratio. Concentrates require less packaging, meaning there are fewer plastic containers being manufactured and tossed into landfills.

There are many other things we can do to contribute to sustainability. However, we ran out of space for this post. Perhaps we will revisit the topic in a future post. In the meantime, we hope you'll consider our USB rechargeable batteries built and designed around cutting-edge lithium-ion technology. They are well worth the investment.