Recycling old phones is easy and Earth Day-friendly
In the days of AT&T’s century-long monopoly, people sometimes kept the same phone for a lifetime.
These days, users upgrade constantly and relegate old phones to desk drawers — or the trash bin. They shouldn’t, say environmental experts at the Detroit Zoo.
Old phones contain the rare mineral coltan that, when mined in the Congo and other parts of Africa, has reduced the habitat for endangered primates, including endangered great apes and gorillas. The zoo’s recycling program for old phones, called Gorillas on the Line — Answer the Call, aims to salvage coltan and other materials for reuse in new phones while also raising money for what is a nationwide campaign.
It’s being highlighted today, Earth Day 2022, and although the official campaign ends on April 30, the collection bins are there to accept old phones the year around, zoo officials said. If you’ve got a drawer full of old phones, as so many people do, load a bag and visit the zoo in the next eight days. You can pay the usual admission fee to reach collection bins inside the zoo, at the Great Apes of Harambe habitat, or use bins at the zoo's entrance without paying.
Another option? Take old phones anytime to any of the 11 metro Detroit branches of uBreakiFix (Bloomfield Township, Brighton, Canton, Roseville, Royal Oak, Shelby Township, Southfield, Sterling Heights, Taylor and Troy; another is set to open in Dearborn next month).
Owner Drew Lessaris, based in Royal Oak, said his shops will send your old cellphone to the company’s recycling partner, electronics giant Samsung. They’ll do the same for any old electronics gear that people wish to drop off, all free of charge — a service he's promoting for Earth Day, Lessaris said. That includes printers, stray cords and cables, DVD players and computers. The exception is TVs, which are too bulky to store and ship.
"We really try to mitigate e-waste," Lessaris said. Of course, the techs at uBreakiFix are happy to take a shot at repairing used stuff, too.
“Anything with an on-switch, we’ll take a look at. We'll tell you what it'll cost to fix it and how much it would cost to buy the same thing new,” Lessaris said.
His shops are known to have fixed everything from illuminated Christmas sweaters to vintage arcade games, said Molly Livingston, spokeswoman for uBreakiFix.
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"Even the choice to get your cracked phone screen fixed instead of buying a new phone is a green choice," Livingston said.
Wherever you take your old phones, it's smart to empty the memory of personal data beforehand.
The Detroit Zoo's phone-collection program started in February, spokeswoman Sarah Culton said. The zoo won't know how many phones it has collected until this year's campaign ends. But it collected 900 in 2021, "ranking us first in the United States and third overall" among zoos worldwide, Culton said.
In response to the Free Press, the Detroit Zoo issued this statement: "While decreasing the mining of coltan in gorilla habitats is a factor in the Gorillas on the Line campaign, it is not the program’s only goal.
"Coltan is a major factor in the world of electronics, but the amount mined in African gorilla habitats could never handle the demand of North American electronic culture. Most of North America's supply comes from Canada or South America. Coltan mining in Africa still impacts gorilla habitats, but not at the level once thought.
"Instead, the Gorillas on the Line campaign’s emphasis on fundraising will provided needed aid to two critically endangered gorilla subspecies."
In total, across all partners, the Gorillas on the Line campaign collected 10,116 devices worldwide, the Detroit Zoo said. Sounds like a lot, except that Americans possess an estimated 300 million cellphones, according to industry statistics.
Contact: blaitner@freepress.com
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: On Earth Day, gorillas would have you recycle old cellphones
