{"id":28068,"date":"2015-01-02T09:58:55","date_gmt":"2015-01-02T15:58:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eshop.macsales.com\/blog\/?p=28068"},"modified":"2015-01-05T10:12:27","modified_gmt":"2015-01-05T16:12:27","slug":"hot-read-urjar-gives-old-batteries-new-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eshop.macsales.com\/blog\/28068-hot-read-urjar-gives-old-batteries-new-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Hot Read: \u2018UrJar\u2019 Gives Old Batteries New Life"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"recycle-OWC-300\"Laptop batteries\u00a0don\u2019t last forever<\/a>. And when upgrades are made, sometimes users still aren\u2019t sure what to do with the original battery and ultimately throw them away creating unnecessary e-waste. One great alternative is recycling your battery locally. In fact, OWC recommends recycling locally to minimize environmental impact.<\/p>\n

And if you buy a\u00a0NewerTech NuPower Battery<\/a> for your Apple laptop and can\u2019t find a local source,\u00a0we can even help<\/a> with the recycling. But while recycling used batteries is a great option, elsewhere in the world they are being disassembled and put right back to work.<\/p>\n

During the first week of December, IBM Research India presented the findings of a new initiative to bring power to developing countries at the 2014 ACM DEV<\/a> convention in San Jose, Calif. Working alongside hardware R&D firm RadioStudio, researchers found that an estimated 70%<\/a> of all discarded laptop batteries still possess enough life to power low-energy DC devices such as an LED lightbulb, cell phone charger, and\/or table fan for up to four hours a day, for an entire year,\u00a0according to MIT Technology Review<\/a>.<\/p>\n

After RadioStudio opened discarded laptop battery packaging and extracted individual storage units called cells, they tested them and combined the live ones to form refurbished battery packs. The device is called an \u201cUrJar<\/a>\u201d, a play on the Hindi words for energy (urja) and box (jar).<\/p>\n

The UrJar is a far more cost-efficient means of providing developing countries with a source of electricity, much cheaper than combining LED lights with solar panels and rechargeable batteries. IBM researchers estimate that each unit could be manufactured for approximately 600 rupees, or 10 U.S. dollars. Worldwide, nearly 1.5 billion people lack access to electricity \u2013 400 million in India alone.<\/p>\n

E-waste has become a global problem with an estimated 50 million laptop and desktop computers discarded in the U.S. every year and 142,000 computers each day, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Recycling one million laptops saves the energy equivalent to the electricity used by 3,657 U.S. homes in a year.<\/p>\n

Of course, we at\u00a0OWC<\/a> have a high level of interest in\u00a0environmental initiatives<\/a> and applaud IBM and RadioStudio\u2019s efforts to minimize e-waste and create cost-effective energy. We certainly hope they continue to make progress with the project!<\/p>\n

Sources:<\/b><\/p>\n

technologyreview.com\/news\/532896\/discarded-laptop-batteries-keep-the-lights-on\/<\/a><\/p>\n

dgp.toronto.edu\/~mjain\/UrJar-DEV-2014.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Laptop batteries\u00a0don\u2019t last forever. And when upgrades are made, sometimes users still aren\u2019t sure what to do with the original battery and ultimately throw them away creating unnecessary e-waste. One great alternative is recycling your battery locally. In fact, OWC recommends recycling locally to minimize environmental impact. And if you buy a\u00a0NewerTech NuPower Battery for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":13757,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"spay_email":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[102,7],"class_list":["post-28068","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-green","category-random-thoughts-and-topics"],"yoast_head":"\nHot Read: \u2018UrJar\u2019 Gives Old Batteries New Life<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Laptop batteries\u00a0don\u2019t last forever. And when upgrades are made, sometimes users still aren\u2019t sure what to do with the original battery and ultimately\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/eshop.macsales.com\/blog\/28068-hot-read-urjar-gives-old-batteries-new-life\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Hot Read: \u2018UrJar\u2019 Gives Old Batteries New Life\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Laptop batteries\u00a0don\u2019t last forever. And when upgrades are made, sometimes users still aren\u2019t sure what to do with the original battery and ultimately\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/eshop.macsales.com\/blog\/28068-hot-read-urjar-gives-old-batteries-new-life\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Rocket Yard\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-01-02T15:58:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-01-05T16:12:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/eshop.macsales.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/recycle-OWC-300.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"300\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"290\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Rocket Yard Contributor\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Rocket Yard Contributor\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/eshop.macsales.com\/blog\/28068-hot-read-urjar-gives-old-batteries-new-life\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/eshop.macsales.com\/blog\/28068-hot-read-urjar-gives-old-batteries-new-life\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Rocket Yard Contributor\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/eshop.macsales.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/41210f6ded9a93e7b106ed9d227b8cdf\"},\"headline\":\"Hot Read: \u2018UrJar\u2019 Gives Old Batteries New Life\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-01-02T15:58:55+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-01-05T16:12:27+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/eshop.macsales.com\/blog\/28068-hot-read-urjar-gives-old-batteries-new-life\/\"},\"wordCount\":395,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/eshop.macsales.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"Battery\",\"Green\",\"Laptop\",\"recycling\",\"UrJar\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Green\",\"Random Thoughts & Topics\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/eshop.macsales.com\/blog\/28068-hot-read-urjar-gives-old-batteries-new-life\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/eshop.macsales.com\/blog\/28068-hot-read-urjar-gives-old-batteries-new-life\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/eshop.macsales.com\/blog\/28068-hot-read-urjar-gives-old-batteries-new-life\/\",\"name\":\"Hot Read: \u2018UrJar\u2019 Gives Old Batteries New Life\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/eshop.macsales.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2015-01-02T15:58:55+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-01-05T16:12:27+00:00\",\"description\":\"Laptop batteries\u00a0don\u2019t last forever. And when upgrades are made, sometimes users still aren\u2019t sure what to do with the original battery and ultimately\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/eshop.macsales.com\/blog\/28068-hot-read-urjar-gives-old-batteries-new-life\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/eshop.macsales.com\/blog\/28068-hot-read-urjar-gives-old-batteries-new-life\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/eshop.macsales.com\/blog\/28068-hot-read-urjar-gives-old-batteries-new-life\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/eshop.macsales.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Hot Read: \u2018UrJar\u2019 Gives Old Batteries New Life\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/eshop.macsales.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/eshop.macsales.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Rocket Yard\",\"description\":\"Your source for expert tips, special deals, commentary, reviews, and the latest tech news.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/eshop.macsales.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/eshop.macsales.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/eshop.macsales.com\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"OWC\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/eshop.macsales.com\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/eshop.macsales.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/eshop.macsales.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/rocket-yard-logo-round.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/eshop.macsales.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/rocket-yard-logo-round.png\",\"width\":1024,\"height\":1024,\"caption\":\"OWC\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/eshop.macsales.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/eshop.macsales.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/41210f6ded9a93e7b106ed9d227b8cdf\",\"name\":\"Rocket Yard Contributor\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/eshop.macsales.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d0664ff56a28a8e8c137acf09662e68dee85a4ce8b0ea7e463cf4593880838f1?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d0664ff56a28a8e8c137acf09662e68dee85a4ce8b0ea7e463cf4593880838f1?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Rocket Yard Contributor\"},\"description\":\"Would you like to contribute? If you have a tip, trick, or piece of knowledge that you would like to share with other readers, send your submissions to rocketyard@macsales.com!\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/blog.macsales.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/eshop.macsales.com\/blog\/author\/guest-blogger\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Hot Read: \u2018UrJar\u2019 Gives Old Batteries New Life","description":"Laptop batteries\u00a0don\u2019t last forever. And when upgrades are made, sometimes users still aren\u2019t sure what to do with the original battery and ultimately","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/eshop.macsales.com\/blog\/28068-hot-read-urjar-gives-old-batteries-new-life\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Hot Read: \u2018UrJar\u2019 Gives Old Batteries New Life","og_description":"Laptop batteries\u00a0don\u2019t last forever. And when upgrades are made, sometimes users still aren\u2019t sure what to do with the original battery and ultimately","og_url":"https:\/\/eshop.macsales.com\/blog\/28068-hot-read-urjar-gives-old-batteries-new-life\/","og_site_name":"Rocket Yard","article_published_time":"2015-01-02T15:58:55+00:00","article_modified_time":"2015-01-05T16:12:27+00:00","og_image":[{"width":300,"height":290,"url":"https:\/\/eshop.macsales.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/recycle-OWC-300.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Rocket Yard Contributor","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Rocket Yard Contributor","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/eshop.macsales.com\/blog\/28068-hot-read-urjar-gives-old-batteries-new-life\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/eshop.macsales.com\/blog\/28068-hot-read-urjar-gives-old-batteries-new-life\/"},"author":{"name":"Rocket Yard Contributor","@id":"https:\/\/eshop.macsales.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/41210f6ded9a93e7b106ed9d227b8cdf"},"headline":"Hot Read: \u2018UrJar\u2019 Gives Old Batteries New Life","datePublished":"2015-01-02T15:58:55+00:00","dateModified":"2015-01-05T16:12:27+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/eshop.macsales.com\/blog\/28068-hot-read-urjar-gives-old-batteries-new-life\/"},"wordCount":395,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/eshop.macsales.com\/blog\/#organization"},"keywords":["Battery","Green","Laptop","recycling","UrJar"],"articleSection":["Green","Random Thoughts & Topics"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/eshop.macsales.com\/blog\/28068-hot-read-urjar-gives-old-batteries-new-life\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/eshop.macsales.com\/blog\/28068-hot-read-urjar-gives-old-batteries-new-life\/","url":"https:\/\/eshop.macsales.com\/blog\/28068-hot-read-urjar-gives-old-batteries-new-life\/","name":"Hot Read: \u2018UrJar\u2019 Gives Old Batteries New Life","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/eshop.macsales.com\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2015-01-02T15:58:55+00:00","dateModified":"2015-01-05T16:12:27+00:00","description":"Laptop batteries\u00a0don\u2019t last forever. And when upgrades are made, sometimes users still aren\u2019t sure what to do with the original battery and ultimately","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/eshop.macsales.com\/blog\/28068-hot-read-urjar-gives-old-batteries-new-life\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/eshop.macsales.com\/blog\/28068-hot-read-urjar-gives-old-batteries-new-life\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/eshop.macsales.com\/blog\/28068-hot-read-urjar-gives-old-batteries-new-life\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/eshop.macsales.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Hot Read: \u2018UrJar\u2019 Gives Old Batteries New Life"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/eshop.macsales.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/eshop.macsales.com\/blog\/","name":"Rocket Yard","description":"Your source for expert tips, special deals, commentary, reviews, and the latest tech news.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/eshop.macsales.com\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/eshop.macsales.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/eshop.macsales.com\/blog\/#organization","name":"OWC","url":"https:\/\/eshop.macsales.com\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/eshop.macsales.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/eshop.macsales.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/rocket-yard-logo-round.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/eshop.macsales.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/rocket-yard-logo-round.png","width":1024,"height":1024,"caption":"OWC"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/eshop.macsales.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/eshop.macsales.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/41210f6ded9a93e7b106ed9d227b8cdf","name":"Rocket Yard Contributor","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/eshop.macsales.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d0664ff56a28a8e8c137acf09662e68dee85a4ce8b0ea7e463cf4593880838f1?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d0664ff56a28a8e8c137acf09662e68dee85a4ce8b0ea7e463cf4593880838f1?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Rocket Yard Contributor"},"description":"Would you like to contribute? If you have a tip, trick, or piece of knowledge that you would like to share with other readers, send your submissions to rocketyard@macsales.com!","sameAs":["http:\/\/blog.macsales.com"],"url":"https:\/\/eshop.macsales.com\/blog\/author\/guest-blogger\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/eshop.macsales.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/recycle-OWC-300.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pmPaT-7iI","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eshop.macsales.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28068","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eshop.macsales.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eshop.macsales.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eshop.macsales.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/46"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eshop.macsales.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28068"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/eshop.macsales.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28068\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28073,"href":"https:\/\/eshop.macsales.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28068\/revisions\/28073"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eshop.macsales.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13757"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eshop.macsales.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28068"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eshop.macsales.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28068"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}