From ABC 7 News:
Zoo Accepts Used Cell Phone Donations
Location: WASHINGTON
Posted: February 16, 2006 6:42 AM EST
URL: http://www.wjla.com/news/stories/0206/303313.html

WASHINGTON (AP) - There's a new way to donate to the National Zoo. The zoo's booster organization wants your old cell phones.

Friends of the National Zoo is joining with a Kentucky company to start a program to recycle cell phones, batteries and accessories. Depending on each phone's resale value, the company, Eco-Cell, will donate as much at $15 to the zoo group.

The cell phones are being refurbished for distribution in developing countries. They can be dropped off at the zoo's visitor center.

The zoo group says cell phones contain toxic materials and pollute the environment when disposed in landfills. Recycling also helps protect the habitats of endangered African gorillas where a rare metallic ore is mined in forests to be used in cell phones.

That mining has increased with the demand for more cell phones.

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