The Marine Corps is a group known for its resourcefulness and it has once again demonstrated how it has earned the right to boast that ‘Marines make do’.

The Marines have recently re-purposed an inactive landfill to serve as the site for a 1.4 megawatt solar panel installation that will power Base Camp Pendleton in San Diego, CA. It will produce 2,400 megawatt hours each year, or enough energy to power 400 US homes.

The total cost of the project was $9.4 million and is expected to reduce annual energy costs by $336,000 (savings will offset construction costs after 28 years of use).

Recently, there was quite a buzz in the UK over a study that showed a high percentage of cell phones and SIM cards acquired on the second-hand market still containing personal data from their previous owners. A company called the CPP Group went on eBay and to various used electronics shops and purchased 35 cell phones and 50 SIM cards. After poking around their new toys using well-known methods and tools, they found that over 50% of the devices still contained personal data from their previous owners; 247 pieces of information in total. This information included passwords, phones numbers, bank account details, PIN numbers, and logins to various social networking sites.

As alarming as their findings are, we here at YouRenew can’t say that we’re surprised. We process devices every day where customers have forgotten to erase phone numbers, music, text messages, and… interesting… photos. Because of all this, we chose in the very beginning to take security seriously. If you choose to recycle your devices with us, we will guarantee you a few things:

• Every single device that is processed in our facilities is wiped of all data and reset to the factory settings using manufacturer-provided processes and tools. We do this regardless of whether or not you’ve wiped the device yourself before sending it to us. This includes any extra memory cards you’ve included with the device.
• Any device we process that we cannot wipe ourselves is not resold. It is instead shredded down to its component materials by our recycling partners. We won’t risk your data getting into the hands of others.
• No device leaves our facility with a SIM card. Any prospective buyer will either already have their own, or will receive one from whichever carrier they’re dealing with.

Even if you choose not to recycle your devices with us, we strongly urge you to take precautions before passing the devices on to others:

• Never give your SIM card away. If you don’t plan on using it in your next cell phone, then destroy it. They’re fairly flimsy so you shouldn’t have much trouble doing so. Make sure you cut it up, taking care to split up the shiny gold section into several pieces.
• Wipe the data from the device itself thoroughly. If you’re unsure how, consult the device’s instruction manual (if you still have it), or check out the growing library of instructions on SecureDataWipe.com.
• Don’t forget to care for any removable memory cards you use with your device. You should either hang on to them for use in your next gadget, or make sure any files on them are removed.

The YouRenew team will always encourage you to recycle your devices instead of dumping them in a landfill, but we urge you to do so responsibly. Remember to safeguard your private information while you’re helping the environment.

Market research firm TNS released an interesting report about mobility featured on Reuters yesterday.

It has been widely recognized that emerging market countries have embraced mobile devices because they never built the land line infrastructure that has existed for decades in the developed world. These markets effectively “leap-frogged” over land line technology and instantly adopted wireless devices. The devices we historically have seen in these markets fall under the “frugal technology” category. Frugal technology in this case refers to non-smartphones that are physically durable with large address books; designed for an entire family to use.

But the leap-frog mentioned in this report is not referencing that of land line infrastructure, but the use of PC’s. The PC legacy is almost non-existent in places like India and Sub-Saharan Africa, and mobility has quickly become the primary means of accessing the internet. In emerging market countries, accessing the internet through mobile devices has increased from 26% to 50% of people in the past year.

This kind of activity requires the use of a sophisticated smartphone, not the frugal devices we have seen in the past. This is a critical distinction and will be particularly meaningful for leaders in the smartphone market (Apple, RIM, HTC).

Check out the Reuters video here!

Let me start by qualifying that I have no background in mergers and acquisitions. And our company operates largely on the periphery of wireless providers. That said, this acquisition is significant in the business community and the mobility world. Our two directors who attended the CTIA conference a week ago can attest to the buzz in the telecom community that is surrounding this deal.

First, the numbers: AT&T has offered $39 B for T-Mobile (or 7-times T-Mobile’s 2010 Ebitda) with a $3 B breakup fee. Certainly staggering numbers.

A lot of talk has centered around the $3 B breakup fee. Many believe that this merger will not receive government approval because it stifles competition and innovation. If approved, AT&T and Verizon would together share 80% of the market. And since AT&T and T-Mobile both use GSM technology (Sprint and Verizon use CDMA) this acquisition would result in only one major GSM carrier in the US.

Another interesting piece of this story is the varying stances from Verizon and Sprint. Sprint’s CEO Dan Hesse has come out vehemently against the deal (tactfully jabbing the AT&T CEO Ralph de la Vega at the recent CTIA conference) because if it goes through Sprint would be left in 3rd place, far behind the two giants. But Verizon has expressed ambivalence, not weighing in for or against the deal. The acquisition succeeding could eliminate the current price leader (T-Mobile) and give Verizon the opportunity to acquire assets that AT&T will likely have to divest due to regulatory requirements. If it fails, AT&T would be left distracted and marginalized.

These facts were not ignored by the stock market. While AT&T and Verizon stocks rose 2.4% and 1.4% respectfully, Sprint Nextel stock fell 3.4%.

This will not be our last post about this topic, so if you’re interested be sure to keep reading!

Bloomberg posted a fun video about the economics of tablet disposal when millions of consumers will be retiring them. Bloomberg project sales of 57 million tablets this year. With these devices expected to have an 18 month lifespan, by 2014 their disposal will create a $12 billion market for the e-waste industry.

Not bad, when you consider that this device category didn’t even exist until a year ago. Make sure you get a piece of that pie by selling your old tablet to YouRenew!

Check out the video here.