Rochester Democrat and Chronicle.com – Turn in your cell phone at the zoo

Misty Edgecomb
Staff writer

(June 25, 2006) — The sleek silver phone in your pocket is part of the reason silverback gorillas in West Africa are disappearing. Mining a rare ore known as coltan, which is critical in the production of cellular phones, is destroying gorilla habitat at an incredible rate.

So zoos across the nation — including Rochester’s Seneca Park Zoo — are collecting cell phones to be reused or recycled, in hopes of reducing both pollution and the market for coltan.

“We try to encourage our visitors to act on behalf of wildlife,” said Ryan Loysen, conservation education coordinator for the zoo.

Cellular phones that are thrown away can release heavy metals, including lead and mercury, into the environment where they contaminate soil, water, fish, animals and, increasingly, humans.

The zoo has collected at least 150 cell phones through a nationwide program known as Eco-Cell. Based in Louisville, Ky., the company refurbishes newer phones and auctions them off, reducing the demand for new phones and sharing profits with the zoos where they were collected. Older phones are shipped to Belgium where precious metals are removed and recycled.

Eco-Cell president Eric Ronay said 134 million people went to zoos last year. “That’s 134 million opportunities to bring a message about conservation and how consumer choices affect wildlife,” he said.

Nationwide, Eco-cell has collected more than 50,000 cell phones at 57 zoos since the company was founded in 2003.

Between the Eco-cell program and a similar Rochester-based effort to recycle ink cartridges from printers and copiers, Seneca Park Zoo has brought in about $450 in the past two years. Loysen said.

New signs and a plan to get teen volunteers involved in promoting the program should give the recycling effort a boost this summer, he said.

“I think it’s great. Every couple years, you have to upgrade your phone,” said Kris Bruneau of Penfield, who learned of the Eco-cell program while visiting the zoo Thursday.

“Anything for recycling,” she said.

MEDGECOM@DemocratandChronicle.com

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