Should old acquaintance be forgot, and never brought to mind?
Should old acquaintance be forgot, and auld lang syne?

Nah.

10 days into 2012, we reflect on 10 milestones for 2011.

#1 The most renewed device in both the consumer and corporate realms was the BlackBerry Curve 8310.

#2 The most valuable device renewed in the consumer realm was an Apple Macbook Air.

#3 The most valuable device renewed in the corporate realm it was an Apple iPhone 4 S 16GB.

#4 Corporate Renew’s first full year processed 2,219 corporate orders.

#5 The most active state for consumer orders was across the state in California.

#6 The article that drove the most traffic to www.YouRenew.com was “Yahoo Shine: Electronics Recycling for Cash“.

#7 The YouRenew Blog made a comeback.

#8 We became better at tweeting. #YouRenew

#9 We profiled a several members of the YouRenew team on YouRenew’s Facebook page.  (Become a fan of a YouRenew employee/ learn more about the people behind the biz here.)

#10 The most popular post on the YouRenew Blog was “The 2010 YouRenew Roundup“.

It may still be January, but we’re already on track to top last year’s milestones first and foremost by surviving the impending apocalypse.  Even if the world is going to end, isn’t it comforting to know that you can always depend on #YouRenew to #ecycle your #ewaste?

What do diapers, Aladdin and an orange juice squeezer all have in common? 

It’s December, which means it’s time for the obligatory end of year list documenting the Top 10 of something.  In honor of this tradition, YouRenew sorted through the phones, laptops and calculators to document the ‘Top 10 Strangest Items Received in the Mail’.  None of the senders were paid to recycle, but all of them will forever be immortalized in YouRenew’s Hall of Fame for People Who Need to Be Asked, “Really?”

Top 10 Strangest Items Received in the Mail
A countdown from least to most bizarre.

#10 Prototype Nokia Phones (never made available to customers)  – not much to say on this except, keep reading, it’s about to get weird.

#9 Apple knockoffs: fake iPods, iPhones, etc. — We know these are fake because when we ask for Siri, we get her voicemail.  (lolz!!)

#8 Land-line phones — basically antiquated.

#7 Large C & D Cell Batteries — some of the most useless batteries around. Thanks.

#6 Inkjet Printer — slightly more useful than the batteries. Note to sender: please send us the ink now.

#2 Packing material in the form of: an unopened pack of Lay’s Kettle Cooked Maui Onion chips and an (unused) diaper.YouRenew Operations Technician, Jason Weber, who helped compile this list, had this to say about the diaper, “I’m not sure if their intent was a symbolic statement, but the phones were definitely ‘refuse’.”

#1 Disney VHS Movies — it is incredible that more than one person has thought of sending Disney in, in particular. What is the thought process that has led so many to the same conclusion? Can anyone explain?  At one point, the (sadly) underused YouRenew VHS (to repeat, VHS… as in, a tape you put in a VCR player) Library stocked, among others, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin and The Lion King.

Thank you to our more creative customers for making this list possible.

Happy Holidays from YouRenew!

Tiger Wood’s current phone: lesson learned.

What do Tiger Woods, Brett Favre and Senator John Ensign have in common? They were all scandalized by inappropriate text messages… and pictures.  You may not have anything as salacious saved on your phone, but just in case you are a celebrity- disaster- waiting- to- happen or a James Bond type looking to update your e- gadgets, YouRenew has the tools to make sure the information on your electronics remains private.

As a reminder, no matter what you want to recycle, visit YouRenew’s SecureDataWipe to protect your information.  To read more on why this is so important, refresh your memory by re- reading a past YouRenew blogpost.

Before recycling your phone, laptop or tablet always be sure to do a thorough cleanup of the information stored. It may seem obvious to delete sensitive data, but it’s easy to forget.  That’s not always a mistake you want to make.

This morning The Wall Street Journal featured a company that would appear to be Napa Valley’s version of YouRenew, with one critical difference – they work with used wine bottles.

In addition to sharing our suffix, Wine Bottle Renew has developed a process that addresses a very similar problem with a very similar solution: reuse wine bottles that would otherwise be thrown away or recycled. According to the article, most of the carbon emissions that result from wine production come from the manufacturing and transportation of empty bottles; and reusing these bottles instead of melting and reforming them will reduce emissions in this segment by close to 95%.

This isn’t a new concept for glass bottle manufacturers. In fact, this process has been widespread for years with Coke, milk and beer bottles. But this has not taken hold in the wine world because vineyards require a far more comprehensive sterilization process and will often make hard to remove labels designed to survive in ice-water. Wine Bottle Renew claims it has developed improved technology that will sufficiently overcome these hurdles, and could possibly even improve the sterilization process.

But despite the challenges it sounds like they have a great idea and could really be on to something great!

We are all excited to see that the Yale Entrepreneurial Institute (YEI) launched its 2011 summer program in its new location earlier this week!

YEI is an incubator for entrepreneurs in the Yale student body and helps them overcome some of the challenges they face starting their new ventures. YouRenew was started out of YEI and we owe a debt of gratitude to the organization for all it has done to help us launch and grow. It has done a terrific job of fostering an entrepreneurial environmental in Yale and New Haven, and gave us the opportunity to work alongside smart and innovative entrepreneurs.

We are proud to say that one of the new ventures is being co-founded by former YouRenew employee Chris Murphy. Chris, and co-founder Greg Hausheer, are launching a website called BookSavr.com, which provides a convenient way for college students to save money when buying textbooks and other class materials.

Other notable ventures that have launched out of YEI include Paper G and TutorTrove. Paper G is a technology company that automates local ad creation, sales and management for online publishers. It was started by an incredibly smart group of guys who have proven themselves as true innovators in the online advertising space.

TutorTrove provides a convenient web platform to assist tutors and educators. Their new product, Desmos, is an online community for interactive teaching. With the large variety of hardware and software in classrooms, teachers face increasing difficulty trying to transition course material from one device to another. Desmos is designed to bridge this gap and become a unifying standard for interactive lessons, letting teachers seamlessly present their material via their computer, tablet, whiteboard etc.

This only represents a small sampling of the companies coming out of YEI. I would suggest visiting the site to see some of the new ventures launching this summer.

We wish the best of luck to the YEI entrepreneurs starting their challenging journeys this summer!