Go Green!

                                                                                                                            Graphic from austintenantadvisors.com

I am sure that most of us have heard of the term, “Going Green” and it basically means to lessen your impact on the environment.  There are many ways to “go green” such as conserving energy, eating organic products, carpooling, etc.  But arguably the easiest (well at least most publicized) way to “go green” is to recycle.  Recycling is turning old products into new products.  You can recycle so many things from cans and glass bottles to tires and paint.  Tires and paint can be recycled at your local Home Depot or Lowes.  Cell phones can even be recycled to help conserve gorilla habitats.  Gorilla habitats are on a drastic decline in Africa due to mining of an ore called coltan.  In order to get to the coltan, miners directly impact the gorilla habitats and population both by killing and eradicating the area.  Coltan is quickly becoming one of the world’s most sought after materials since it plays a major role in technology, including phones and computers.  The United Nations estimates that the remaining wild gorilla population could go extinct within the next 10-15 years .  But there is hope through cell phone recycling.   The Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden along with Ecocell are sponsoring the Saving Species Go Bananas Challenge that can recycle cell phones to decrease the need for mining in Africa.  Every little bit helps but imagine if millions of people were involved in cell phone and other recycling.  We really could make a difference!  I do find it painfully ironic that the very computer that this entry was typed on contains coltan.  In some ways we will not be able to escape our impact but we can surely lessen it. 

If you are from the Cincinnati area, I created a map to cell phone donation cites.  Go Bananas!