Zagreb Zoo

Date: 28.09.2011.

You must have asked yourselves: What do mobile phones and apes have in common? To answer that question, we must first discover what materials make up an average mobile phone. Other than noticeable plastic parts, mobile phones consist of various electronic parts and battery, all of which are made of rare materials such as Cobalt, Lithium, Copper, Lead, Mercury, Nickel and Cadmium. One of the rarest materials that is used for making batteries for mobile phones is Coltan because of the ability to store large amounts of electric charge.

Furthermore, it is important to remind ourselves that those materials are dug up in mines. Most of those mines are in the central Africa, in tropical rainforests. That is one of the main reasons for deforestation of that area. Tropical rainforests are a homefor many different species and some of them are the magnificent gorillas and chimpanzees. One of the most endangered areas is a Kahuzi Biega national park in Congo where number of mountain gorillas dropped by half and their habitat was reduced by 90%. It is estimated that there are only 3000 gorillas left in Congo today.

All parts of a mobile phone can be recycled, or reused. More recycled mobile phones lower the necessity for new mines, and therefore lower the need to cut down more tropical forest. It is clear how much gorillas and mobile phones are directly connected – the survival of apes depends on a production of new mobile phones. However, things do not have to be that way! It is up to us to decide whether we will allow the disappearance of gorillas, chimpanzees and entire tropical rain forests or recycle our mobile phones.

Therefore we ask: Man, where is your mobile phone?