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Switching to rechargeable batteries not only saves billions of used batteries from landfills, but it also saves you money.  Buying rechargeable batteries and a charger may cost you a little more cash up front, but the savings over the years can be big.  Most rechargeable batteries can be recharged up to 1,000 times and last 2 - 5 years.  If you replace your single use batteries as they die, the additional cost of the rechargeable replacement is minimal.

• Buy a battery tester.  When a device stops working, don't assume that all the batteries are dead.  Use a tester to make sure as you may only have to replace one.
• Buy rechargeable instead of single use batteries
• Buy a battery charger/conditioner (they run between $6 and $56).
• You can compare battery chargers and find the one that's right for you at http://www.greenbatteries.com/batterychargercompare.html.
• Consider a mobile, solar generator with a recycled plastic backpack (one from Voltaic at http://www.voltaicsystems.com ranges from $200 - $400).  The smaller bag produces 3 hours of iPod play time or 1.5 hours of cell phone talk time.
• Recycle rechargeable batteries - they can be dropped off at over 40,000 convenient US retailers for recycling through the Call2Recycle program (check their website for a list of the participating retailers - http://www.rbrc.org.

On average, each person in the U.S discards eight dry-cell batteries per year.  That's approximately 2.4 billion batteries a year!

With three young kids and all of the electronic gadgets that they have, we go through a lot of batteries.  I was really surprised at how much money we saved switching over to rechargeable batteries.