Recycling Electronics and Saving Gorillas

Green Holiday Action #16 has a global impact. This is from my friend Laurel who has been working on gorilla conservation:

Lots of folks get new electronics like cell phones as gifts this time of year. Perhaps you could remind them not to throw away their old cell phones, DVD players, GPS's or other electronics that contain coltan and other minerals. They can recycle them instead. - Laurel

(photos courtesy of Laurel Colton)

What does recycling your cell phone or MP3 player have to do with gorillas, African forests and the welfare of millions of people?

Inside your cell phone, personal computer and a variety of small electronic items there are capacitors coated in special minerals with a high tolerance for heat. These minerals reduce the transferal of heat within your appliance. What does this have to do with gorillas? Every resource comes from somewhere.

Columbite and tantalite are two of these rare minerals. In processed form, they may be listed as tantalum on a label. The ore they are refined from goes by the shortened name coltan. Coltan is found primarily in Australia and central Africa. Legal mining in Australia has all but shut down because of the illegal mining in the Congo which is providing artificially inexpensive coltan.

Very much like the blood diamond situation, coltan mining attracts militaries and war lords who use the profits from these precious minerals to fund their activities. Coltan is mined in open pits, destroying normal vegetation. Some of the major mining locations are within previously protected areas like Kahuzi-Biega National Park. This U.N. World Heritage Site is home to one of the last groups of eastern lowland gorillas. With illegal mining activity comes additional cutting down of the forest for building and firewood. Armed parties have driven off park employees and threaten wildlife. The thousands of people digging the minerals require food; protected animals, including gorillas, are hunted for human food. Many of the people working in the mines are children or captives.

We can all play a role in stopping this habitat destruction and human tragedy. These minerals, as well as gold and silver, can all be collected from electronic devices and reused through recycling.

Many cell phone companies will take back your old phone for recycling, but you have to ASK. Find out more about recycling your cell phone or electronics at eco-cell.com and watch the video The Secret Life of Cell Phones

The Enough! Project is working to increase understanding of this issue. Just like with blood diamonds, the worst of the trade can be stopped if major corporations are required to purchase tantalum from legal sources. The Congo Conflict Minerals Trade Act of 2009 (HR 4128) is making its way through Congress, you can tell your elected officials you support this legislation through the Enough Project's Action Page

2009 has been the Year of the Gorilla. If you are giving an electronic gift this season, or if you receive one, don't throw away that old device.

Help yourself, the gorilla and the planet by recycling old cell phones and electronics.

For more on coltan mining in Congo:

Go to the FREE screening of Return to Virunga: The Battle to Save the Mountain Gorillas with film maker Stefan Lovgren this Saturday, Dec. 19 at 3:30 PM at:

Hasting's Branch Library 3325 East Orange Grove Blvd., Pasadena
Please RSVP to: lmcolton@hotmail.com

Watch the video from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting VIDEO

Coltan mining facts from the Jane Goodall Institute

Support Gorilla Conservation