Recycle Your Cell Phone, Save the Gorillas
Stefan Lovgren
National Geographic News
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It may not be as simple as that, but a recycling program to collect old cell phones at the San Diego Zoo and other American zoos is highlighting the little-known connection between cell phone use and the survival of African gorillas.
Conservationists point out that recycling cell phones protects landfills from the many potentially hazardous chemicals found in the phones, including antimony, arsenic, copper, cadmium, lead, and zinc. But cell phones also include coltan, a mineral extracted in the deep forests of Congo in central Africa, home to the world's endangered lowland gorillas.
Fueled by the worldwide cell phone boom, Congo's out-of-control coltan mining business has in recent years led to a dramatic reduction of animal habitat and the rampant slaughter of great apes for the illegal bush-meat trade.
Jan 20, 2006
Stefan Lovgren
National Geographic News
____________________
It may not be as simple as that, but a recycling program to collect old cell phones at the San Diego Zoo and other American zoos is highlighting the little-known connection between cell phone use and the survival of African gorillas.
Conservationists point out that recycling cell phones protects landfills from the many potentially hazardous chemicals found in the phones, including antimony, arsenic, copper, cadmium, lead, and zinc. But cell phones also include coltan, a mineral extracted in the deep forests of Congo in central Africa, home to the world's endangered lowland gorillas.
Fueled by the worldwide cell phone boom, Congo's out-of-control coltan mining business has in recent years led to a dramatic reduction of animal habitat and the rampant slaughter of great apes for the illegal bush-meat trade.
Jan 20, 2006
