Donate your phone, save a gorilla
Posted February 2, 2021 4:34 pm.
Last Updated February 2, 2021 8:58 pm.
The Toronto Zoo has issued a call for old electronic devices, primarily of the handheld variety.
It’s part of the “Phone Apes” program which has been running since 2006, but the Zoo is putting a big emphasis on it this year.
It wants to collect 15,000 devices in 2021. The program has brought in a little over 47,000 phones over the first 14 years of the initiative.
https://twitter.com/TheTorontoZoo/status/1356655142842609665
Properly recycling phones helps conserve tantalum.
Tantalum is a metallic powder that involves the rare earth metal coltan, the vast majority of which is mined from the rainforests of the Republic of Congo and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. These rainforests are the main habitat for western lowland gorillas.
Toronto Zoo CEO Dolf Dejong says:
Handheld devices are almost being treated as disposable items these days, it’s critically important we collect them […] there are only around 100-thousand western lowland gorillas left on the planet.
If you’d like to get involved, the zoo says you can hold on to your old device until the zoo re-opens after the lockdown, or you can drop it off or mail it to the address below:
Toronto Zoo – Cell Phone Recycling Program C/O Curator of Conservation Programs
361A Old Finch Avenue
Toronto, Ontario M1B 5K7
