[jandrese]

A kilogram of Zinc costs about $2.50[1] and is enough for an adult man for three months. There is no zinc crunch in the foreseeable future. Plus if it really became a problem you could recycle the zinc out of old batteries.

[1] https://markets.businessinsider.com/commodities/zinc-price

[onemoresoop]

1 kg for 3 months? Maybe 3 lifetimes..

[jandrese]

Bah, you're right. I put in a KG instead of G in my calculation, so 3000 months instead of 3 months. In any case I am not worried about running out even if we go whole hog on these batteries.

[logfromblammo]

To show the math:

1 kg Zn * 1000 g / kg * 1000 mg / g * 1 day / 11 mg Zn * 1 year / 365.2425 day * 1 male lifespan / 76.04 years = 3.27 lifetimes.

The amount of Zn in one US post-1982 penny is 2.5 g (ignoring the copper cladding), which is 0.62 of a year's requirement.