Fungi can recycle your smartphone battery

Over the years, our reliance on lithium-ion batteries to power everyday devices has increased dramatically. For a long time, researchers have warned us about two things: one is that there is only so much lithium -- and other metals used in electronics -- on the planet and the other is that when a rechargeable battery reaches the end of its life, if not disposed of properly, those materials will become a threat to human health and the environment.

Those issues have led to scientists to look for solutions. Many breakthroughs have been made in extending the life of rechargeable batteries, which helps reduce the amount of metals that need to be mined and the frequency with which they get thrown away. Now, there just needs to be a better way to recycle the batteries at the end of their life that protects people and the environment and recovers those precious metals so that they can be reused.

Researchers at the University of South Florida have created a process for extracting lithium and cobalt from lithium-ion batteries that is straight from nature. The researchers found that fungi can safely and simply extract the metals from used batteries, keeping the materials out of landfills and ready to be reused in new batteries.

The batteries are first taken apart and the cathodes are pulverized. Then three different strains of fungus -- Aspergillus niger, Penicillium simplicissimum and Penicillium chrysogenum -- take over.

"Fungi naturally generate organic acids, and the acids work to leach out the metals," explained Jeffrey A. Cunningham, Ph.D., the project's team leader, to the American Chemical Society. "Through the interaction of the fungus, acid and pulverized cathode, we can extract the valuable cobalt and lithium. We are aiming to recover nearly all of the original material."

Processes used to recycle batteries and other electronics can require high temperatures and harsh chemicals and can be unsafe. The fungi are able to recover the valuable metals safely and, as a bonus, it's very inexpensive.

"Fungi are a very cheap source of labor," Cunningham said.

Cheap and effective. Tests have shown that the acids from the fungi are able to extract up to 85 percent of the lithium and up to 48 percent of the cobalt from old batteries. Once extracted, the metals remain in a liquid acid mixture, so the next step is to figure out how to remove the metals from that liquid.

The researchers are also working on testing different strains of fungus and the acids they produce to see which are best at extracting different metals so that this process could be used on a variety of electronics.

Smartphone repair shops are taking over old British phone boxes

The old British red phone boxes originally housed pay phones, but over the past couple of decades they have become obsolete. Most were removed, but a large amount have been renovated and given new lives. Some have been turned into solar charging stations, small neighborhood libraries and tiny office sheds.

The latest red box makeover is turning the old phone booths into smartphone repair shops. Phone repair company Lovefone are renovating 35 phone boxes, turning them into Lovefoneboxes where people can get their smartphones and tablets fixed, access free charging and free Wi-Fi. It's a fitting transition as the ubiquitousness of cell phones is what caused the red boxes to become unnecessary.

Each 1-sq-m box will feature a workbench, a perforated wall panel and shelving for holding tools and an underfloor safe for guarding people's devices as they await pick-up. They will each house six public charging stations so that the boxes are still serving the public as the old phone booths did.

The boxes are protected structures so no permanent changes can be made, but Lovefone is designing each slightly differently depending on its location and orientation. The company is keeping the glass windows so people can look inside, but are covering them with unbreakable polycarbonate sheets to safeguard the tools and devices inside along with locks for the doors. The boxes will also have CCTV for security.

The first repair booth opened up on Greenwich High Street in London this month and they aim to add another six in London soon, with a total of 35 coming to the city in the next 18 months. The company is also looking at franchise opportunities outside of London.

12 new uses for old smartphones and tablets

From a home security system or fire alarm to a picture frame or dual monitor, there are many clever jobs your retired devices would love to have.

On average we upgrade our phones every 29 months; and with the seduction of new and improved tablets always on the horizon, iPads and their kin are often left in the dust when new shiny models appear. Old phones may have lost their battery lives or other functions that make them obsolete for daily work; and a new phone may have improved capabilities that you require. At best these retired devices are passed on to kids or others who might find them useful, at worst they are sent packing to the landfill. The rest? Well I’m guessing more than a few of you have a drawer filled with old phones.

As we all know, a smartphone is more than a device for making calls. (It might surprise some people that they can actually be used to talk to one another using one's very own voice.) They are more like little pocket computers; tablets are their glorified cousins. So instead of putting them to pasture, you can give them a retirement job instead. Geoffrey A. Fowler at The Wall Street Journal got this ball rolling for me with his suggestions, and I’ve added many more from my own experience. (If you know of others, leave them in the comments.)

Many uses don’t require breaking them open, just operation system updates and app downloads, as Fowler notes, "the hardest part may be finding the old charging cable.”

1. Recipe book

iPad, kitchen, recipes. Capisce? I have an old iPad on an old book rest that holds recipes that I have collected from all over the web and ones that I’ve entered myself. Of course one doesn’t need a dedicated tablet for the kitchen, but if you’ve got it laying around anyway, it’s nice to have one that may be a little less precious in the face of flour and eggs.

2. Security system

As more people invest in security systems to spy on the nanny or catch the antics of pets when left alone, an old Wi-Fi capable phone can stand in for some high-tech voyeurism.

Fowler suggests a free app called Manything, which can transform an old Apple or Android phone into a security camera. You can use a mini-tripod to house the phone (like in the photo above) and a power source to keep it plugged in. The app is really pretty nifty and has many a trick up its sleeve, see below:

3. Fire alarm

With the free app called CleverLoop Smokey, your old phone becomes a fire alarm, of sorts. As soon as it hears your smoke detector go off, it sends you a text.

4. Remote control

Another free app, this one called Peel, can employ an old Wi-Fi able phone or tablet as a universal remote control that also knows what's on TV and thinks it knows what you'll want to watch. Some phone models may need an extra piece of equipment, the Peel or Peel Pronto which both cost $50, and which kind of defeats the purpose – but you can still put iPhone apps to work for Apple TV, Roku, or TiVo using just Wi-Fi.

5. Picture frame

An old iPad may not have the bells and whistles of a more recent model, but it still has a nice display that can be put to use as a digital picture frame. Hang it on a wall or prop it on your desk, rotate a slideshow or just show off your favorite photo.

6. Portfolio or photo album

n a similar vein, if you have an old iPad and have photos to bring with you somewhere, load them onto the tablet and you have a slick display – this is great whenever you have digital images you would like to share without bringing a whole laptop (or desktop, that might prove tricky) or paper album, prints or portfolio.

7. International travel phone

Roaming charges, one of the banes of travel. Am I right? But as Fowler points out, you can use an old phone and purchase a new SIM card at your destination for local service. As he explains, in the UK for instance, you can buy local service with 100 minutes plus 1 GB of data for $13 with a new SIM card. However, he writes, there’s a small (but workable) caveat:

Sometimes U.S. phones have software locks to prevent that. ( Verizon is the big exception—it’s 4G phones are unlocked.) However, you usually can unlock old phones that are no longer under contract, if you ask.

A few days before you travel, call your carrier or put in an unlock request on its website. You should also check whether your model will work in the country where you’re traveling—phones and network standards do vary.

8. Back-up phone

Speaking of phones, you know what happens if you lose your phone or it bites the dust before your contract is up – you’re stuck paying full price for its replacement. (That is if you live on the edge and don’t purchase a protection plan. Like me.) If you can stand reverting to a former model until your contract is up, it can be a great bridge to save you the money until you are eligible for a new device.

9. Alarm clock

If you don’t like your phone in your bedroom or you like to have it off and silent at night, using an old phone for an alarm clock makes perfect sense. And not only can you use the phone’s clock function, but you can add a fancy app to suit all of your waking-up needs, like apps that provide a gentle rousing, or ones that require more effort to make sure you get out of bed.

10. Jukebox

I know many people have advanced ways of storing and playing their music, but some of us are more simple. (Again, me.) I loaded up most of my music on an old phone and have it plugged in to a compact Bose system that belts out my favorites. I concocted this system when my iPod died; I had an old phone, it saved me from buying another iPod. This would be a nice solution for someone wanting music in another room apart from where their main sound system lives, like the bedroom or kitchen.

11. Shower radio

Like the jukebox use above, but this is even simpler – hang an old music-filled iPhone in the bathroom to set the mood for the morning shower or evening bath. The acoustics of the bathroom will make up for the music-straight-from-the-phone quality.

12. Second monitor

If you like to work with two screens, you may very well already have one lying around – in the form of an old tablet. Several apps make this easy, Fowler recommends Duet Display ($20) which plays nicely with both Macs and Windows PCs. Once installed (with an iPad 2 or later), you just plug it in and voila, double the fun. TreeHugger’s very own Lloyd Alter attests to this usage, as you can see from his lakeside summer writing spot pictured above.

To make your smartphone last longer, avoid overnight charging?

The New York Times recently tackled this question: should you charge your phone overnight? The answer was if you're only keeping your phone for two years and then replacing it as most people do, go ahead, it makes no difference.

But here at TreeHugger we like to find ways to make our gadgets last longer, not find excuses to go along with the planned obsolescence of our devices. So, let's look at the question from that point of view.

The heart of the question has to do with the amount of charge/discharge cycles a smartphone battery can go through. In the article they say that overnight charging in itself is not a problem because smartphones have a chip that stops the phone from absorbing any extra electrical current once the battery is fully charged. You can't "overcharge" the battery.

The issue with charging every night is that the daily charging and discharging of the battery eventually wears down the battery and leads to a reduction in the amount of charge it can hold, so you'll find yourself reaching for your charger even more often. That slimming down of battery capacity usually happens in about two years and that frustration is what often causes a person to upgrade to a new phone.

The solution is charging your battery less, which means using your phone less -- not going to happen -- or finding a way to charge your phone more slowly so that there is less stress on the battery over time.

The chargers used with current smartphones optimize the speed of the charge, but that also hastens the corrosion of the battery. You can try using a charger that typically charges a less powerful device, but it may be tricky to find the right match. For instance, you could use your iPhone charger to slowly charge an iPad Pro.

Another important tip is to avoid temperatures over 95 degrees. Exposure to high temperature also damages the battery and shortens its life.

The best thing you can do though is protect your phone, charge it when necessary and then when the battery capacity dives, replace the battery, not the whole phone. You can buy a replacement battery for between $20 and $40 and iFixit.com has step-by-step guides for replacing it on your own. Many Android phones have a removable cover where the battery can easily by swapped out.