Story #1. Where we started - Hidden energy in my drawer

When was the last time you changed your smartphone? 
Maybe last year? Or this year, as soon as new models flooded out?

It's not surprising to find out that the average smartphone replacement cycle is about a year in 14 developed markets, according to a mobile consumer survey done last year by Deloitte. 
Considering it is 'average', some people are changing their phones in less than a year!

Now a question would come up in your minds - what's the issue?

Well, after getting new phones, we throw our old ones into the drawers, 
and the old batteries are quickly forgotten.

Of course, this won't be exactly the case for phones with non-removable batteries, 
but still, we can imagine that millions of batteries would be discarded every year.

Think about it; we usually get TWO batteries when we buy battery-removable phones!



The problem is that, these batteries have more than 80% of efficiency left in them!
You can check it out from the graph below that even after 500 cycle of recharge, lithium-ion batteries still have 80% of efficiency.

Now, can you imagine how much energy is hidden in our drawers, 
waiting for a chance to be reused?



This is where our idea sprouted from. 

We say that we need to save energy
- keeping the light off when no one uses it, pulling out cords after use, and so on. 

Plus, people are developing various new sources of energy, 
including solar energy, wind power and even methane from cows' gas!

Then, what about energy hidden around us?

Energy in used smartphone batteries is surely worth reusing, but the problem of reusing them is that, they are ALL DIFFERENT.
I am not the only one who was frustrated to find out that the old battery doesn't fit my new phone, right?

As smartphone companies developed new smartphones with batteries 
different from the previous model, there was no choice but to throw the old batteries away.
Material-recycling old batteries might be the least bad result, 
but still, the potential energy in them are being wasted anyway.

We wanted to solve this issue and stop wasting valuable resources, 
with an idea that can reuse various batteries with one solution.

So this is where it all started - discovering energy being wasted around us. 

Now, guess what solution we came up with! :-)

To find us on Kickstarter, Click: 

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/betterre/better-re-upcycling-power-pack-reusing-smartphone

Thanks for reading, and hope you have a wonderful day!