The city of Nice and that of Edinburgh are organizing a collection of used phones and tablets in partnership with the “Jane Goodall Institute” to allow them to be recycled. The funds obtained will be donated to the protection of great apes. A container shaped like planet Earth is installed within Nice-Étoile to collect them.
By collecting and recycling them, the institute aims to protect these species living in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Everyday electronic devices are made of minerals that are mined in this African country. “Mobile phones contain minerals such as gold, cobalt, tungsten, tin, and coltan,” the institute states on [its website](https://janegoodall.fr/laforetvousappelle/).
The DRC is a state that is home to areas where these primates are found, and the exploitation of these mining resources and their extraction cause havoc in the habitat of these species. Added to this are conflicts between communities and an increase in illegal hunting of these apes. The recycling of these devices thus helps to reduce the environmental impact by decreasing the use of these minerals.
“The proceeds from this collection will be recycled, and the funds obtained will be entirely allocated to protecting biodiversity in the regions affected by the exploitation of the metals used to make our phone batteries,” Nice-Étoile states on its [website](https://www.nicetoile.com/evenements/sauvons-les-chimpanzes).
According to the “Jane Goodall Institute” [web page], there were approximately 3.6 billion phones in circulation worldwide in 2020. It adds that 99% of the materials they are composed of are recyclable. On average, the lifespan of a mobile phone is 2 years.
