Gorilla Girls Recycling
Zoe is launching a special recycling program to help save gorillas. And she wants kids from all over Australia to help!
ZOE, ROOKIE REPORTER: Hi BTN I'm Zoe! I'm 12 years old and I live on a small farm in a lovely place called Wildes Meadow. Last year when I was in Year 6 I heard Bindi Irwin speak about how you are never too young to make a difference and how gorillas are critically endangered. This lead me to create the Gorilla Girls, a team of students who are keen to make a difference in the lives of gorillas.
Ella: Hi I'm Ella.
Julia: Hi I'm Julia.
Ali: Hi I'm Ali. We are the Gorilla Girls.
Africa's gorillas are some of the most endangered species in the world, because of things like hunting and habitat loss. Right now, there are only 250-300 Cross River gorillas and 750-800 Mountain gorillas left on our planet.
Zoe: My question to you is do we want to have to explain to your grandchildren in 80 years' time about the extinction of the gorillas?
To help them, we decided to start a recycling program for your e-waste. That's electronic stuff like mobile phones, tablets, chargers and headphones that often end up in landfill when people are done with them.
Julia: It is estimated that around 20 million unused or broken phones or devices are lying around in Australia's drawers and cupboards.
Many of those electronic devices contain a rare earth called Coltan. One of the biggest Coltan mines is smack bang in the middle of gorillas habitat in the Congo. But if we recycle our electronic devices, we're reusing the Coltan in them. That means less demand for it, and eventually, less gorilla habitat destroyed by mining.
Ella: But Coltan isn't the only metal extracted from your device. Every phone or tablet contains around $2 worth of precious metals. You know that your phone contains 2c worth of platinum, 5c worth of aluminium, 12c worth of copper, $1.58 worth of gold and 35c of silver. So, by collecting devices to recycle, we're also raising money for a charity in Africa that protects and cares for gorillas.
Ali: When we collect all your old electronic devices and send them off to the recycling centre, the centre then pays us approximately $2 per device. The money that is collected from selling our e-waste is then donated to the gorilla doctors in Africa.
Ella: Our targets for the program this year are to recycle one thousand mobile phones and other devices from the Southern Highlands and to get our program up and running in as many primary and secondary schools as possible.
We've been promoting the cause on our local Youth Radio show. We've also been working with local councils to launch the recycling program in the community. We've already got seven schools onboard and four local businesses, including a big electronics store.
Ali: So far, we have recycled over 200 mobile phones and devices and raised approximately $550 for the gorilla doctors.
We're really hoping the program takes off and that other schools around Australia start recycling devices too.
Zoe, Julia, Ella, Ali: We absolutely believe that together, through our e-waste recycling program, we can make a difference to help save the gorillas from extinction!
- Amelia Moseley | Reporter
- Save the Gorillas: Gorilla Girls | weblink
- E-Waste: Behind the News | history
- E-Waste fact sheet: Clean Up Australia | pdf
- Materials found in e-waste: E-Waste | weblink
- Cross River Gorilla Fact Sheet: ABC | pdf
- Threatened Species Day: NSW Office of Environment and Heritage | weblink
- Saving our closest relative: NSW Education Department | pdf
- Australia:NSW | Map
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