In developed areas, mobile phones are frequently replaced as soon as new and more functional models come toSource: University of South Australia, Zoos Victoria market. Discarded phones are commonly relegated to a desk drawer instead of being recycled. This non-sustainable behavior does not bode well for gorillas in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Recycling of old phones for the extraction and reuse of conflict metals, including tantalum and niobium, could ease pressure on wild populations of gorillas inhabiting metal mining regions.

A six-year campaign was conducted by University of South Australia and Zoos Victoria to promote mobile phone recycling by providing drop-off points at zoos and educational activities designed to alert the public about the link between conflict metals and gorilla conservation. During the 2009-2014 initiative, more than 115,000 old phones were donated.

The study results, which are published in PLOS One, show that a conservation-based organization, along with corporate sponsors and community groups, can effectively influence people’s mobile phone recycling behavior and offer scope for international collaborations to maximize scale and impact.