The Problem
Last October, fifth grader Ella Morris had the good fortune to meet Jane Goodall at the Wildlife Conservation Expo in San Francisco. Ella's project, the Eco-Ape Cell Phone Recycling Drive, is a response to Jane’s call for help.
Ella asked her friends and the students & parents at Rooftop Alternative PreK-8 School for their help to protect the 880 mountain gorillas remaining on our Blue Marble. This is especially important to our school community because our school mascot Kong is a gorilla.
Our Plan
Today, the mountain gorilla's habitat in Africa is severely impacted by the mining of coltan, a mineral most commonly found in cell phone batteries and the capacitors used in many electronic devices.
Ella invited Rooftop students & families to help by donating their old or broken electronics for recycling. The Eco-Ape Recycling Drive began on International Mobile Phone Recycling Day, January 27th through Leap Day, February 29, 2016. Ella and her friends Luca and Dylan made posters, created a video PSA and made announcements at school. They were also responsible for going from classrooom to classrooms to collect donations to the campaign.
The Jane Goodall Institute (JGI) collaborates with ECO-CELL to process
donated electronics. Currently Eco-Cell collects: Cell phones, Cell phone accessories, iPods and MP3 players, Handheld game systems, GPS handheld units, E-readers, and Portable hard drives.
The proceeds earned from this recycling drive will benefit JGI.
