How big of a pain is it when your cell phone or iPod runs out of battery? Now you might never need to charge your electronics the old way! New research has shown that in the future it might be possible to recharge our cell phones or iPods just by moving our body!

At the National Meeting of American Chemical Society, the lead researcher Zhong Lin Wang stated, “Quite simply, this technology can be used to generate energy under any circumstances as long as there is movement.”

When our body moves, we produce “mechanical energy.” Using a “nanogenerator,” scientists think that we can transmit electric pulses created by our body to charge the device. See the full article here at the Alternative Energy News website .

Those Apple commercials with people dancing with their iPods might have a whole new meaning!

Thanks for reading!

Rich

recycle and sell electronics today!

It’s been just over a month since the beta launch of YouRenew.com. It’s been great to see people recycle and sell electronics every day.

For the next couple months we’re looking to improve the site. That means add more devices in the nine categories we currently support and also maybe add a few more catagories.


To do this and more, we need smart people like you to help us find the people who are interested in working with us! We need an extra hand in every area of the business, so if you know programming, marketing or operation specialists, email me at Rich@YouRenew.com. If you’re one of these people, contact me too! Check out the jobs section of our site for a more comprehensive list.

Look forward to hearing from you,

Rich

There were 140 million cell phones generated in 2006-2007. Only 14 million, or 10%, of electronics by weight were recycled.

Here at YouRenew.com, we’re trying to make it easier to sell or recycle old electronics than throw them in the trash. To accomplish our goal, we’ll ask you to take time to learn more about the need to recycle.

You can think of this as 90% of people not knowing, having the ability, or caring about recycling. What is an analogy to put this 90% figure in perspective? Here’s one I created with inspiration from the Dr. Steven Covey’s book “The 8th Habit.”

Of the 90% of people today who don’t recycle, let’s pretend 45% don’t know how, 35% don’t have any ability to, and 10% refuse to do it.

Let’s give an analogy. If a baseball team tried to get a batter out and had these same percentage participation scores above, with 9 players supposed to be on the field at a time:

- 4 of the 9 of the players would not know the rules on how to get a batter out.
- 3 of the 9 wouldn’t even show up to the game.
- 1 player wouldn’t even try to get the batter out.

All but one player is essentially playing for the other team. Imagine if this were the Yankees when they were playing the Red Sox!

See more electronics recycling statistics here

Sell Electronics today at YouRenew.com.

Hey everyone,

As I’m sure you noticed, we updated our homepage recently. The additions are: (1) A content section that dives into more detail about who we are and what we do, (2) news coverage and articles that have been written about us will be added to the “Buzz” section shortly, (3) a “ShareThis” button and a “Keep in touch with us” section that will make connecting with us easier, and (4) our blog posts updated on the homepage daily!


Our goal is to make it easy as possible for you to sell or recycle your old electronics online. We’re looking for new and better ideas for every part of the website, so please comment if you have any! The changes on the homepage we’re mostly driven by user feedback. Keep it coming!

There are also some changes you should see soon, including but not limited to: About Us Page (you’ll see pictures of the team), Why Recycle?, and other small changes throughout the website.

Look forward to hearing your feedback!

Rich

For every electronic device, there is a charger or cord. Here at YouRenew.com headquarters, where we deal with hundreds of devices a week, we’re constantly plugging and unplugging, tangling and untangling.
We’ve come to wonder why the large equipment manufacturers (Samsung, Motorola, Apple, Nokia, Palm, etc.) insist upon using their own proprietary chargers rather than a universal standard. Not only would this save a great deal of time and productivity here, it would also save consumers everywhere a great deal of money, and would keep untold amounts of electronic waste out of dumps. What if next time you bought a cell phone, you could use the same charger that you use with your current device? You’d never again have to worry about carrying your charger everywhere that you go – if you leave your charger at home, someone at work would certainly have one for you to use.

Thankfully, it appears as though many of the large manufacturers are beginning to take note of this same problems that we are. In February, at the Mobile World Congress, many of the largest cell phone manufacturers and cellular service providers announced that by 2012 they are looking to have a majority of handsets on a single, universal charger. Companies endorsing to the new charger include 3 Group, AT&T, KTF, LG, Mobilkom Austria, Motorola, Nokia, Orange, Qualcomm, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, Telecom Italia, Telefónica, Telenor, Telstra, T-Mobile and Vodafone. I’m all for it, and I’m glad that these corporations are getting on board.

One innovative technology that excites me even more than a universal charger is cordless charging. There are a number of great technologies currently in development (such as the one shown in the video below) that charge batteries using induction technology with no need for a plug in the wall, a long tangled cord, or a charging port. Simply place a device on the mat, and it will charge away. I’m hoping that viable, low cost options like this become available sooner rather than later.