If I had to pick a catchline that perfectly describes The Greenest Dollar, it would probably be “Save Green By Going Green”. After all, most of the time going green really does save us money.
But, what if we could get green by going green? Wouldn’t we feel super lucky if we found a place that actually paid us to recycle?
Well, that’s the premise behind YouRenew.com, a brand spankin’ new company that just came on the green scene a few weeks ago.
How Does YouRenew.com Work?
YouRenew.com is a website that pays you to recycle your old electronics. Yep, you read that right: they pay you to recycle electronics.
Here’s how it works: you type in the device of model number of whatever you’re looking to recycle. If it’s listed on YouRenew.com, then you’ll answer a few questions about the device, and then find out how much YouRenew.com will pay you to recycle it.
And, we’re not talking chump change here. You might be surprised at how much you can get for some of that clutter lying around your house. For newer equipment, we’re talking $100, $200, or $300 or more. So, it definitely pays to check.
If you decide to recycle the device, YouRenew.com will send you a receipt and a free shipping label so you can send it to them completely free of charge.
What Devices Can You Recycle?
YouRenew.com takes a pretty wide variety of electronics. You can recycle:
* Cell phones
* Laptops
* MP3 players
* Calculators
* Digital cameras
* Gaming devices
* External drives
* Games
* DVDs
Want A Visual?
Check out this video to see firsthand how YouRenew.com works:
How YouRenew.com Is Different
If you’ve heard of Gazelle.com or MyBoneYard.com, then you know that there are other sites that will pay you to recycle your electronics. But, YouRenew.com stands out in a big way.
Why?
Because they’re completely green.
Here’s what they do: in addition to paying you to recycle your device, YouRenew also allows you to choose an environmental organization for them to donate to.
So, every time you recycle a device you can tell YouRenew.com to donate to CarbonFund.org, or AmericanForests.org (where one tree will be planted for each device you recycle). So, environmental organizations benefit financially every time you use YouRenew.
YouRenew also offsets their carbon footprint by using Co2Stats.
And, you can rest easy because your device isn’t being shipped off to some foreign country. YouRenew.com guarantees that your device will be safely recycled. Here’s what they have to say about it:
We guarantee that any device that touches our hands is safely recycled.
Our electronics recycler: Abington Reldan Metals, LLC (AR Metals), based in New Jersey, has been in the metals recycling business for over 30 years, and is an industry leader in recycling. AR Metals holds itself to the highest environmental and ethical standards – it does not export any e-waste and recycles on-site. It is ISO 14001 certified.
That, in my opinion, is pretty sweet.
YouRenew also stands out because it’s super easy to recycle your electronics here. You don’t have to set up an account; it’s a very quick process.
The site was founded by two students at Yale, Rich Littlehale and Bob Casey. I had a chance to talk with Rich about starting YouRenew, and he says that this all began because of an obsession with green business, and green tech in particular.
When I asked Rich how YouRenew.com was attempting to stand out from the crowd, he had this to say:
Where we’ve chosen to focus on differentiating ourselves is in three areas:
1) being greener
2) building a community of people who are interested in greening electronics and recycling and
3) making the site slightly easier to use (no account necessary, etc).
As for being greener, I think this is obvious in the following areas: the feel of the site, our partnerships and donations for every transaction with Americanforests.org and Carbonfund.org, and transparency for what we do with the old electronics (i.e. showing you we work with AR Metals of Philadelphia for recycling).
This stuff is only the beginning. In subsequent releases of the website (one coming up in early April), we’ll be a lot more clear on how we define recycling, what we do with electronics, and how we can help people be greener.
As for building a community, we’ll rely heavily on social networks such as Twitter and included the YouRenew Pledge on our website for people to promise not to throw away their old electronics and if they are interested get a newsletter we’ll put out on electronics recycling and technology every quarter.
It All Started At Yale..
Rich and Bob’s story is one that I love: a story of big risks, hard decisions, and all-nighters that ultimately paid off. It’s entrepreneuralism at its best!
Their story goes like this: while at Yale, Rich, Bob, and a few others now on their team began to see just how damaging thrown-away electronics can be on the environment. So, they decided to do something about it.
Their goal was simple: to create a business that would pay people to recycle. But, the implementation was far more tricky. For instance, both decided to take time off from Yale to pursue this dream. It was a huge risk, and they had more than enough nay-sayers telling them it wasn’t going to work. Rich even turned down a great job offer from an investment banking firm so he could start YouRenew.com.
The business model they’re using went through quite a few twists and turns, but Rich and Bob didn’t give up until they figured out the best way to structure the business.
It’s a fine balance, but they’ve managed to pull it off. And these guys have made an enormous effort to green this business as much as possible. They truly care about the environment, and they don’t just talk the talk on this; the proof is in the steps that they’ve taken to do as much good as possible.
The Challenge of Starting A Green Business
I asked Rich what his biggest challenge has been since starting YouRenew.com, and he said:
This is a great question and I can’t help but laughing when I see it. The truth is what Bob, our programming team, the other workers and I did over the last 4 months was utterly unhealthy.One night that sticks in my mind was staying up till 5am feeding and hydrating programmers on a Saturday night. Bob and I are (currently) about to take our first day days off in months.
Beyond the number of hours put in, here are a few other challenges: (1) people not believing in your idea and telling you that, (2) the reality that building anything on the web takes 3 times longer than anticipated (3) raising the capital necessary to build the platform, and (4) so far, getting the word out (though we’ve only been up less than a week).
Last Word…
If you can’t tell already, I love this site. I love the fact that they donate to environmental organizations with each transaction, that they’re keeping tons of electronics out of our landfills, and I love that they offset their carbon footprint by using Co2Stats.
I also love that these guys risked everything to start this business. As an entrepreneur and big dreamer myself, I can’t help but be drawn to other folks who are willing to live on the edge to follow their hearts. That’s when you know that you’re truly living, and I’m giving YouRenew.com a standing ovation for risking it all on this awesome endeavor.
Please go check out their site, YouRenew.com.
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{ 4 comments }
Can you also buy stuff that people have recycled to the site?
Thank you, never knew you could get payed for recycling.
Almost 40 years computers were stepping into our houses. At first they were enormous and slow as turtles, but every year they were more and more modernized, made smaller and cleverer. As today – computers are everywhere – in your pocket as Mobile Phone, in your car as driver’s helper, at your home, work or school as irreplaceable entertaining, work or learning tool. Of course, computing technologies never were cheap, so not everyone was able to purchase one or another electronics device, especially in poor Countries.
All these 40 years technicians and engineers were working hard to satisfy the customers – end user of one or another kind of electronics device. As a result, we have dozens of different gadgets – mobile phones, computers, laptops, etc. And what’s more stranger – we’re willing to get the newer and faster or smaller device. In that case, the old electronics we’re not using anymore are kept at closets or garages, without any purpose. Besides – it’s ecological problem too. Some of the materials that computers or mobile phones are made from are noxious; other’s decay time is very long.
Our goal is to make all these problems as smaller as possible. We‘re willing to buy Your old or unnecesary electronics and, if it functions, to sell them for people at poor countries for smaller price, that everyone could be more happy as possible – You‘d get some extra money instead of mummyfying the gadget in the closet or garage, so the poor boy could buy cheap laptop for school.
And if the device isn‘t functional – http://www.recycleyourdevice.com could happily collect it from You for responsable utilization. All you need to do – ship us the non-functional or unusable device. That will quarantee, that Nature will be less abandoned and you‘ll be able to breath more clearly air, cach more fish at rivers or sea, see more birds in the sky, feel more healthy, so more happy everyday – and that‘s not all what makes Ecology!
Electronics waste
We become so addicted to electronic devices that we cannot imagine our lives without computers, mobile phones, CD-players and other electronic devices. We are so reliant on these items that they are nearly rule our lives. They are very beneficial and make our live so much easier but sooner or later they break.
We are so attached to our electronic items that they become our best friends. We sorrow and can’t believe when we lose our “best friend” but few days later our old “friend” is being replaced by a brand new device.
Usually people behave hastily and hide their broken electric device somewhere in the darkest corner or throw it away somewhere in the nature where they think it will not bother anyone and won’t do any damage. But it’s not that simple and we must be aware of some things.
Every electric device has its electromagnetic fields which are very harmful to people and their health. These devices are composed of some very pollutant materials: heavy metals (mercury, lead, cadmium, chrome) and halogenated materials ( chlorfluormethane (CFC), polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB), polyvinylchloride (PVC) and bromints, fire retardant materials. Most of them are toxic and, once released into the environment, may harm human health. For instance, lead can infringe the nerve system, heart, vessels, and kidneys. Cadmium infringes brains. Furthermore, various magnets in electric devices radiate rays which are harmful, so when we store an unnecessary device which doesn’t even work in our home we put ourselves and our family at risk.
Leaving the waste in the nature is also not the solution. It is probably even worse, because by doing so we are not considering the impact on wildlife that we cause. Harmful substances, when applied to the soil, pollute the ground water, plants and intoxicate animals. Probably each and every one of us appreciates relaxing and forgetting about all the worries on a Sunday afternoon somewhere outdoors but imagine a world where such places don’t exist. Probably life would not be very pleasant.
We must say STOP to inappropriate electronic waste management because if we want to have beautiful nature and stay healthy we must not be insensitive and we must sort our waste. By doing so we hand the things that we don’t need to the hands of specialists. Then various wires, catalysts and other electric equipment are recycled and returns to the industry appropriate for new device manufacturing.
Electronic waste recycling preserves nature and our health. We must understand that the things we purchase today tomorrow will become waste. And it is our responsibility to take care of our surroundings, not anyone else’s. posted by recycleyourdevice.com
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