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[Carrie McLaren <stay.free AT verizon.net>]

Your Old Cell Phone Could Help Save a Gorilla
Feb 16th - 8:04am
Melwood
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http://www.wtopnews.com/index.php?nid=25&sid=701004

Hank Silverberg, WTOP Radio

WASHINGTON - Help save a gorilla. Donate your old cell phone to the 
National Zoo.

The group, Friends of the National Zoo, is collecting the old cell 
phones, their batteries and accessories. The materials will be 
recycled or refurbished in an effort to cut down on both waste and 
the mining of coltan in the Congo, where wild gorillas are 
threatened. Coltan is used to coat components of cell phones.

Coltan is short for Columbite-tantalite. It is a metallic ore 
comprising Niobium and Tantalum, 80 percent of which is mined in the 
Democratic Republic of Congo, says National Zoo spokesman Matt Olear.

"The mining of Coltan there is destroying habitat for these gorillas, 
and it's also making them vulnerable to poaching for the bush meat 
trade," says Olear.

Olear says usable phones will be given to ECO-Cell, a Kentucky 
company, that refurbishes them for use in developing countries. In 
return, the zoo will get up to $15.

To donate your phone, just bring it to the Zoo's Visitor Center and 
drop it in the collection box at the front desk.

(Or click here for the Zoo's contact info:
http://nationalzoo.si.edu/Contact/default.cfm )