By employing organic polymers toxic heavy metals can be omitted and inexpensive resources utilized. Traditional battery-metals like lead, lithium, vanadium or nickel/cadmium impose a burden on the environment. Not only is their disposal/recycling problematic, but also mining of the metal ores comes along with problems ranging from erosion to contamination of groundwater.

Organic polymers show a reduced environmental impact as life-cycle assessments demonstrate. The use of polymers will become increasingly economic as the prices for high-demand resources commonly used in battery manufacturing will rise in the coming years.