Calling on you to save the Gorilla.

Did you know that by recycling your mobile phone, you can help save endangered gorillas in Africa?

Each time your mobile phone rings, a tiny piece of metallic ore known as coltan is making this call possible (coltan is used to coat the phone capacitor). The mining of coltan the Congo River Basin is contributing to forest loss and unrest in the region and is accelerating the loss of mountain gorillas at an alarmingly fast rate. 

Now, because of a campaign established by Future Sustainability Leaders participant and Melbourne Zoo's General Manager, Rachel Lowry, Australians are being asked to help save the gorilla by recycling their old mobile phones.

The “They’re Calling On You” mobile phone recycling program was launched at the Melbourne Zoo by internationally renowned primate expert Jane Goodall in October. 

The homegrown programs aim was to protect African gorillas by recycling as many mobile phones as possible. 

By donating their old phones, donors are:

• Lessening the demand for coltan mining by providing the coltan coated capacitor in their old phone a second life
• Helping Melbourne Zoo raise money to support the Jane Goodall Institute’s primate conservation work through the sale of refurbished phones
• Diverting their mobile phones from landfill.

Rachel, Melbourne Zoo’s Community Conservation Officer, is passionate about the idea of using education to help people emotionally connect with wildlife conservation efforts. 

She believes that helping Australians understand the implications of their individual actions — in this case the purchase of a new mobile phone — will open their eyes and hearts to the need to take action. 

“People generally aren’t aware of the consequences of their actions, that someone living in Australia and buying a mobile phone can be having an impact on an endangered species  in Africa,” said Rachel. 

“The beauty of the They’re Calling On You campaign is that it not only makes it easy for Australians to understand the implications of their purchasing, but it makes it easy for them to take action.

“People can donate their old phones at the zoo or go to our website and print off a postage paid recycling label, meaning that the phone can be returned at no cost to them.” 

The corporate sector was also encouraged to support the program and could donate a fleet of mobile phones by calling a free collection service listed on the campaign website.

So how does coltan affect the gorilla population? Rachel says that 80 per cent of the world’s coltan reserves are located in Africa, most in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Despite coltan mining being illegal in the DRC, it is estimated that in 2004 alone, more than 10,000 people moved into the Kahuzi–Biega National Park
to work in the illegal mining industry. Thousands of wildlife were being killed and sold as bush meat to the miners and rebel armies that control the area, thus wiping out an entire population of elephants and decimating more than ninety percent of the Mountain Gorilla population. This has left the species on the brink of extinction.

During the first twelve months of the campaigns launch, Rachel had hoped to be able to collect 10,000 mobile phones.

Twelve months after its launch, Rachel is ecstatic about the results. 

Melbourne Zoo alone had collected 13,000 phones and it had been picked up by 13 other zoos across Australia. It had also expanded into every Bendigo Bank branch in Victoria,” Rachel said.

Expanding They’re Calling On You nationally had seen an additional 20,000 mobile phones collected and recycled. Money raised through the program was also used to support primate conservation work undertaken by the Jane Goodall Institute

The campaign had received widespread recognition, including Melbourne Zoo winning the corporate “Contribution To The Environment” award at this year’s Melbourne Awards

Rachel said this external recognition had been as important as the number of phones collected and recycled.  “Hundreds of media articles have been published and it has prompted foreign correspondents to travel to Africa and report on the situation,” said Rachel.

Another success of the program has been the impact on the industries that were linked to the mining of coltan.