Published: June 26, 2008 02:57 pm            

Don’t toss that phone: recycle it!

ASHEBORO — You can help preserve an African rain forest by recycling your old cell phones.

The N.C. Zoo, in partnership with Randolph Telephone Membership Corp. and several wireless phone stores in Asheboro, is collecting old cell phones for recycling and using the receipts to help a program called UNITE. The Uganda North Carolina International Teaching for the Environment program is a collaborative effort to preserve the Kibale National Park in Uganda through education of school students in nearby villages.

Bob Langston, interpretative specialist, Carolyn Brown, UNITE coordinator, and Randy Fulk, curator of education, met recently in the Zoo’s library to discuss how the program helps the environment, both here and in Africa.

“The goal (of UNITE) is to preserve the areas around the Kibale National Park,” said Langston. “We’re working with schools and teachers (in the region) to teach environmental education.”

The Kibale Forest is one of Uganda’s largest rain forests and has more primate species, including elephants, than any other forest in the world. But the forest is endangered because more than 80 percent of the population depends on subsistence farming, and that means clearing trees to grow crops.

Brown said UNITE teaches farm families how to rely more upon indigenous plants whose fruits can be harvested without damaging the forest. “We’re teaching families how to live more efficiently with the resources available,” she said.

Since Uganda has universal education up to the sixth grade, it’s been found that teaching environmental issues to children is one of the most effective ways of preserving the land. UNITE has sent teachers from the United States to teach ecology in rural schools. They also show the Ugandan faculty members how to teach students more effectively.

“Most of the rural schools have dirt floors and limited resources,” said Brown. “We try to provide the tools they need. We built a library and classrooms (at one school).”

Langston said staff members were looking for a steady source of funding for UNITE, and in 2003 the Federal Communications Commission began allowing portability of numbers, letting phone users to change service providers without giving up their phone numbers. That meant cell phone users could change companies and keep the same numbers, but they still had to dispose of their cell phones.

“Cell phones can’t be disposed of into the environment because they have lots of toxins,” Langston said. He learned that many phone recyclers were sending the old phones overseas, where countries don’t regulate recycling. But he was able to find a recycling company called Charitable Recycling that will make donations to charities for phones turned in and was committed to safe recycling.

“We decided to use the money from recycling for UNITE,” said Langston.

Some of the phones can be refurbished and redistributed to agencies such as Family Crisis Center. Those that can’t be reused are sent to Miami, where they’re taken apart and the metals are stripped out for reuse, thus reducing the amount of ore that has to be mined, he said.

“Some of the elements are carcinogenic or cause other health problems,” said Langston. “They can be neutralized without releasing into the environment.”

For those who don’t want to recycle their phones for fear of identity theft, Langston said Charitable Recycling clears all information from the chips as the first step in the process.

Since UNITE’s phone recycling program began in 2004, more than $3,100 has been raised for environmental education, said Langston.

“We can build a classroom, pay a teacher for at least one year or buy books for an entire school,” said Fulk. “Money goes a long way in Africa.”

Brown said UNITE has an exchange program in which African teachers come to the United States. “Now Ugandan teachers are teaching (environmental education to) their own teachers. And we hope to have someone on the ground there at all times, soon. We can see results from the process.”

There are cell phone recycling bins inside the North America and Africa entrances at the Zoo. Collection bins can also be found at 3D Wireless, nGo Wireless, Verizon Wireless and Randolph Telephone Membership Corporation. Ask about special promotions for recycling.

        

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