There’s a good chance you have one sitting in a drawer somewhere: a phone retired years ago, screen cracked or battery dead. Ahead of World Gorilla Day on 24 September, Australia’s mobile phone recycling program is making the case that this small piece of forgotten electronics has a direct line to the survival of one of the world’s most endangered great apes.
MobileMuster, Australia’s official phone recycling program, is donating $1 for every device recycled throughout September to primate conservation, through a campaign called They’re Calling on You. The link between old phones and gorilla habitat comes down to what’s inside the device itself.
The metals in your phone and the forests they come from
Phones contain finite metals and minerals, including copper, aluminium, cobalt, nickel and lithium. Mining these raw materials can degrade habitat in the regions where gorillas and other primates live.
“Every phone recycled is more than a step towards a circular economy, it’s a step towards protecting the habitats that gorillas and other primates call home,” said Helen Maisano, Head of Sustainability and Social Impact at the Australian Telecommunications Alliance, which manages MobileMuster.
MobileMuster estimates 12 million broken phones sit unused in Australian homes, and more than 95 per cent of the materials in each one can be recovered rather than mined again.
A campaign built on conservation partnerships
The campaign brings together MobileMuster’s zoo partners, Zoos Victoria, Taronga Zoo Sydney, Taronga Western Plains Zoo Dubbo, Zoos SA and Sydney Zoo, alongside conservation organisations including the Jane Goodall Institute Australia, Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary and Gorilla Doctors, which provides veterinary care to wild mountain gorillas in Central Africa.
For travellers who have trekked to see mountain gorillas in Rwanda, Uganda or the Democratic Republic of Congo, the link between a recycled phone and habitat protection is a tangible one. Gorillas remain critically endangered, and pressure from resource extraction on their forest habitat is an ongoing threat.
Recycling a phone is simple and secure
Almost every Australian lives within 10 kilometres of a MobileMuster collection point, including Vodafone and Optus stores, with a free post-back service for regional and remote areas. The program accepts phones, batteries, chargers and tech accessories, and all data is destroyed during recycling, so devices are safe to hand over even without a backup.
