Instead of using glow sticks or a battery-powered flashlight, give your trick-or-treater a way to light their path battery-free.

Hand-crank flashlights shine f... read full tip

Instead of using glow sticks or a battery-powered flashlight, give your trick-or-treater a way to light their path battery-free.

Hand-crank flashlights shine for an hour after one minute of winding. Since they don't use batteries, there's no fear of being stuck in the dark if the light goes dim-they just need to be wound-up again.

Wind-up flashlights are affordable (priced typically between $7 and $20) and they are widely available in stores and online.

Battery-powered flashlights can be expensive over time as dead batteries are replaced with new ones. And because batteries are considered hazardous waste, any effort to reduce their use and disposal is good for the environment.

If you use a wind-up flashlight instead of a battery-powered one, you'll never have to buy batteries for your flashlight again-potentially saving tens of dollars per year.

If half of the 41 million kids that will trick-or-treat this year carried a wind-up flashlight instead of a battery-powered one, 2 million pounds of batteries could be saved from the waste stream. If laid end-to-end, this many batteries could stretch almost 1300 miles-nearly all the way from Seattle to Minneapolis!

If you come across any spent batteries, never throw them in the trash. There are numerous centers that accept old batteries for recycling and proper disposal.

21st Century Goods
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