Are E-Scooters Really As Eco-Friendly As They Seem?

Over the past few decades, we've seen society gradually start to shift away from fossil fuels, and move toward greener, more eco-friendly options. 

Today, e-scooters have quickly become a popular sight in virtually all busy, metropolitan areas. 

They provide many benefits such as being more affordable than traditional methods of transportation, as well as being more convenient since they can easily get around traffic jams on busy city streets. 

But even though e-scooters are lauded as being an eco-friendly mode of transportation, are they really environmentally friendly? 

In the following article, we'll be taking a look at the darker side of e-scooters to help explain why your "eco-friendly e-scooter" might not be as eco-friendly as you'd think.

Electricity Is Often Produced With Fossil Fuels

Even though your e-scooter might not use any fossil fuels to power its motor, you'll still need to plug it in to charge it from time to time. 

And although there's been a trend of producing "green" electricity from renewable sources like wind, water or solar, many regions around the world still rely on coal or other less eco-friendly methods to generate their power. 

So depending on where you live, by plugging your e-scooter in to charge it, you might unintentionally be using electricity generated by fossil fuel production factories. 

Still, e-scooters do use less fossil fuel than gas or diesel-powered vehicles. So even though they may use electricity generated by fossil fuels, they're still a more eco-friendly option than getting around in a car, van or truck. 

Made From Non-Recyclable Materials

Many of the components that make up an e-scooter are made from plastics or metals that are processed in industrials factories, pumping out tons of carbon emission per year. 

And what's worse is that the plastics on your e-scooter aren't likely to be biodegradable.

So although your e-scooter may not produce any carbon emissions itself, the manufacturing facilities that it came from likely did. 

And at the same time, if your e-scooter breaks down one day and ends up in the landfill, it's component are not ever going to break down. Therefore, it will likely remain in the landfill for hundreds or even thousands of years!

Non-Eco-Friendly Lifecycles

At first glance, a person riding down the street on an e-scooter or electric scooter may appear to be making an eco-friendly choice. But when you consider the full lifecycle of an e-scooter, which includes the manufacturing process, transportation, maintenance, and routine upkeep, the life of your e-scooter becomes much less green. 

As the popularity of e-scooters continues to rise in the future, there will be a huge increase in demand. 

This means that e-scooter production plants (which aren't typically eco-friendly) are going to increase production rates, and in turn, their carbon emissions as well, to help them meet the growing demand from global consumers. 

On top of all of this, the rechargeable battery inside of your e-scooter isn't any good for the environment either. And as a matter of fact, modern lithium-ion batteries are known for being toxic and harmful to the environment. 

Furthermore, the fact that the cost of recycling these batteries is higher than the cost of manufacturing them, lithium-ion batteries often end up in landfills, where they will stay indefinitely and will slowly contaminate the ground below the site. 

As of today, there are no known methods for safely disposing of these batteries. 

So Are E-Scooters Eco-Friendly?

In the end, e-scooters, such as the Dualtron Thunder, probably aren't as eco-friendly as you thought: they still use electricity generated with fossil fuels, are made of materials that are non-biodegradable, and the worse part is that their batteries often end up accumulating in landfills. 

But still, that's not to say that riding an e-scooter isn't a more eco-friendly option than traditional forms of transportation. 

In fact, one study found that the lifecycle emission of greenhouses gases from e-bikes was only about 200 grams of CO2 per mile traveled. Whereas, cars are estimated to produce about 400 grams of CO2 per mile. 

With that being said, e-bikes still are an eco-friendly option. 

However, it's important to understand that they still aren't completely eco-friendly, and in some ways, they do still (indirectly) contribute carbon emissions into the atmosphere.