How Wireless Charging Will Keep Toxic Waste Out of Landfills
Cutting the Cords Alison Seiffer Rechargeable batteries were supposed to keep trash out of landfills. Instead they replaced old garbage with new. Consumers throw away billions of battery chargers every year; cellphone chargers alone account for almost 100,000 tons of trash annually. And as discarded chargers sit in landfills, they bleed toxins like mercury and lead. That cycle is about to end. Wireless charging will soon be compatible with many of today's mobile devices, providing a universal, more eco-friendly way to power up. Nikola Tesla first experimented with wireless induction nearly a century ago. A typical system consists of a charging base and a receiver. When connected to a power source, a current flows through a metal coil in the base, which causes the coil to pulse and generate an electromagnetic field. When a user puts a device on the base, the field induces a current in a receiver coil,...