When Fenix burst on the scene, their lights of that size only took CR123s; would not take the higher voltage 16340s. That’s my excuse. I pretty much only buy lights that use rechargeables now.
I suppose for a non-flashaholic, it doesn’t really matter. They’re only going to use a light a few times a year, and thus only spend a few dollars on batteries.
I need to charge batteries every day. If I used primaries, I’d be spending over $1000 a year on batteries! Or, more likely, finding another hobby.
The average person throws away an alkaline battery at 1.2 volts. This still has 40 percent of it’s capacity. This information can be found in the Radio Shack battery book. Lithiums are alkaline like in their discharge curves. I have pulled out batteries from clocks that still worked at .8 volts.
There are some differences: Alkaline voltage drops while being discharged, lithium is nearly constant voltage.
http://lygte-info.dk/info/ComparisonOfAABatteryChemistry%20UK.html
Try asking who collects stuff — say at a county sheriff’s or volunteer fire department or whoever responds to 911 calls if anyone does, or any hardware or builders’ supply.
If you separately bag the alka-leaky cells, and tape the 9v terminals, you can accumulate them for a long, long time before you need to haul the bag somewhere.
(Obviously don’t keep even “completely dead” lithium-ion or li-po ‘bag’ cells indoors, or all together anywhere, and know when not to inhale …)
I grew up back when responsible people burned all their trash in a back yard wire basket, and buried the broken glass and rusty metal every year or so — and irresponsible people drove out the nearest dirt road and dumped everything ‘out of sight’.
People are getting better about this stuff.
Heck, my mother remembered growing up when laundry was done every week by a family that came ’round the neighborhood with a mule hauling a wagon with a great big metal tub, built a wood fire in each family’s yard to boil the water, and scrubbed everything by hand and hung it out. Progress.