Sianelle 

Um.... It is Her actually.

Thankyou for your input to the discussion Stokell. This is still the Electric Bike Forum and I take great care to weed out those who are just trying to sell something. Now that the two sticky threads have been put up there will be no more discussion of non-electric powered bicycles within the main forum itself.
As a woman who lives with a disability my ownership of an electric assisted tricycle has been immensely liberating and I shall always be an enthusiast for this mode of transport. However the fact remains that in this particular era of history many folk are looking for a less ecologically hungry way to transport themselves around and I happen to think it is worthwhile to keep an open mind on the subject.

The fact of battery disposal is going to be a future difficulty. We have just the one disposal plant here in NZ and in recent history there have been numerous leakages of dangerous gases and substances from the plant which has cause all manner of difficulty for folk living nearby. A high level of on-going plant maintenance and up-grading under government scrutiny has been necessary to keep discharges within Safety guidelines and I do wonder just how carefully future battery disposal plants in the developed world will work to remain 'green'. Or perhaps this will be yet another waste problem that gets solved for cheap in the Third World