Donate A Cell Phone And Help Save Endangered Gorillas
Feb 19th - 4:15pm

Washington, DC - Donating your old cell phone could help to save endangered African gorillas.
The National Zoo is one of more than 50 zoos in the U.S. and Canada participating in an ongoing program to recycle cell phones to reduce landfill pollution and protect the environment in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Zoo spokesman Matt Olear says cell phones contain a rare metallic ore called coltan, which is mined in the Central African home of the endangered lowland and mountain gorillas.


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Coltan mining, which has increased with the popularity of cell phones, destroys their habitat and renders the animals vulnerable to poaching for the bush-meat trade.
Kentucky-based company ECO-CELL works to reduce the need for coltan by refurbishing useable cell phones for distribution in developing countries, hospitals, law enforcement offices, senior citizen organizations and charities.
(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)