‘True Start’ is what Toyota calls its car battery that I had installed in my 1996 Reliable Driving Machine (Toyota Camry) on Saturday. The old car battery had some dead cells. The car had trouble starting up several weekends, every time after sitting in the garage for only 5 days. Yes, lead-acid batteries is ancient technology (compared to those found in electrical and hybrid-electrical cars), but the recycling of lead-acid batteries is extremely efficient. Some facilities recycle 95% of the battery, its electrolyte and its housing. Lead is extremely durable. I love my collection of pictures for the elements, scanned from pages from an old TIME-LIFE book – and I posted the one for lead on the right.
Hi Willem,
Very interesting about replacing your battery and recycling. The battery in my 1996 Jeep Grand Cherokee was bought in 2001 and is still going strong in 2014, the longest I have ever gone without replacing.