Our lives have transformed with the ‘green age’ now upon us. We find ourselves constantly making decisions with the environment in mind, whether this be changing our commute to work, picking up a bag for life at the supermarket or simply focusing on the right waste to include in our bins – it’s become a huge part of our every day lives.

Despite the fact being eco-friendly is widespread across society, there’s more to be done. Throughout the past few months, we at Tekoia have conducted some research into the environmental impact of batteries that find their way to landfill. Unbelievably, we discovered that it takes up to 100 years to properly biodegrade one lithium battery, with the majority of these in wastage coming from everyday remote controls.

Take this into consideration – the average TV remote control takes up to x2 AA sized batteries and these are replenished on average once a year. In the US alone, each household typically has x3 TV remotes and there are 123M housing units within the country, meaning there’s somewhere in the region of 750 MILLION batteries being put into landfill every year and that’s disregarding other household remotes.

We’ve developed the SURE Universal Remote, a smart application for Android devices which integrates with nearly all our household appliances and removes the need for multiple remotes lying around your home. Simply all you need is your Android device with an infrared (IR) blaster and you have the ability to turn your house into a smart home.

Alongside our campaign is the #TrashTheRemote competition, a social competition which gives you the opportunity to not only promote our cause but also have a chance of winning an HTC One smartphone. The competition has now been extended and will terminate on Sunday 13th September 2015. Follow this link for your chance to enter – http://www.sureuniversal.com/TrashTheRemote

Please help to spread the word and join our battle against unnecessary wastage.