EARTH DAY 2006
Louisville will celebrate early to avoid conflict with Thunder

By James Bruggers
jbruggers@courier-journal.com

The Courier-Journal

Earth Day in the Louisville area will come a week earlier than for the rest of the world, with two main events today -- one at the Louisville Zoo and the other at the Falls of the Ohio State Park in Clarksville, Ind.

First observed in 1970, Earth Day is generally celebrated on April 22, but this year that conflicts with Thunder Over Louisville, the annual fireworks and air show event that draws several hundred thousand people to the waterfront.

Today's local Earth Day events aren't expected to draw that large a crowd, but the zoo is expecting as many as 5,000, while the falls is expecting more than 1,000. Both combine family fun with a message of respect for Mother Nature.

The zoo event, sponsored by Kentucky's Touchstone Energy Cooperatives, will feature exhibits from government agencies, local businesses and environmental groups and a program from the Kentucky Opera. Children 11 and under will get in free.

The Falls of the Ohio event will include bird watching, kite flying, environmental movies and live jazz. It is sponsored by Kentuckiana Air Education, the Trash Force and Jamey Aebersold Jazz -- and all admission fees are being waived.

Zoo officials are asking people to bring old cell phones and donate them to a new Louisville-based recycling program that raises money for one of the zoo's favorite causes: Bushmeat Crisis Task Force.

The task force is a consortium of organizations and scientists working to save wildlife, such as gorillas, from commercial hunting for meat sales.

"It's such a good mission fit for us," said Mark Zoeller, assistant director of the zoo.
The company that recycles the phones, Eco-Cell, is a new, small business with an international reach run by a husband and wife in the Clifton neighborhood. In addition to the Louisville Zoo, the company has set up recycling efforts at more than 50 zoos in the United States and Canada, including in Atlanta, Denver, San Diego, Philadelphia and Quebec.

Zoeller said cell phones contain a metal that's mined in Africa, destroying the gorilla habitat.
Eco-Cell either re-sells, refurbishes or gets the phones recycled for their metals and plastics, said Eric Roney, the company's owner. In return, zoos get on average about $1.50 per phone for conservation programs of their choice, he said.

He said his company handled 21,000 cell phones last year and expects 60,000 this year. In addition to any profits the company makes, it will turn over an anticipated $200,000 to $250,000 to its zoo programs.

Cell phones have become common in the United States, with an industry-estimated 212 million wireless telephone service subscribers, said H. Scott Matthews, an assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering at Carnegie Mellon University.

Not much is known about how many cell phones are recycled in the U.S., he said, but he noted that people use their phones on average for just a year or two, and 70 million to 100 million new phones are sold in the country each year.

The U.S. trails Europe in recycling cell phones -- and other electronics -- because few communities have laws requiring recycling, he added.

The Louisville Zoo has collected 3,000 phones in the year and a half since the effort began, resulting in $4,500 for the Bushmeat task force, Zoeller said, adding that the zoo wants to expand its collection effort to include local businesses.

Reporter James Bruggers can be reached at (502) 582-4645.