Yep, it sure is
Believe it or not, I first came across the "free batteries for life" video about June last year, then thought to myself "can this really be true?". Sure enough, on checking the electronics department battery recycling bin, and getting a voltmeter out, it did appear to be true - approx 50% of the batteries were still good and perfectly salvageable. (The uploader of that video decided just to keep the 1.5V batteries; however, I categorize mine into 1.5V+, 1.0-1.5V and below 1.0V. The ones in the first category are almost brand new, the ones in the middle category will still work on most appliances, and the ones in the latter category are dead and cannot be reused.) Using my method, I often got a 70%+ success rate, i.e. only 30% of the batteries in that recycle bin, actually needed to be in the recycle bin.
After just over a year of doing that, I now have a 5 year supply of most normal batteries, and over 100 free rechargeable batteries. Awesome
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