It’s well documented that recycling cell phones can help save the environment, but that means more than just a faceless idea – all sorts of creatures, from humans to gorillas, are affected by pollution from our handy phones.

There are more than 3 billion mobile phone subscriptions worldwide, and the amount is increasing exponentially Brian Ohl, the director of programs at Inform Inc., said.

Cell phones contain toxic chemicals like lead, chromium and antinomian, Ohl said. When people throw out their phones, the phones go into landfills, and rain water can pick up the heavy metals and carry them into water supplies.

‘There are also a lot of municipalities that incinerate their garbage,’ Ohl said. ‘Incinerating hazardous material sends some of that material up into the atmosphere, and things like plastic can create dioxin, which is a very carcinogenic substance.’

Almost all electronic products contain hazardous material, but people are more likely to throw away their cell phones because they own more of them, and phones are small and easy to put in the trash, said Oladele Ogunseitan, an expert in hazardous and green material at the University of California, Davis.

In a study conducted in 2007, Ogunseitan found that cell phones caused lead levels that exceeded both federal and California state laws. People are already polluting the environment with this product, and it’s not just in the United States, Ogunseitan said.

‘Some used cell phones that make it to developing countries end up being discarded into street piles where they don’t have well-designed landfills,’ Ogunseitan said. ‘It’s a global pollution problem.’

Much of the time, it is the cell phone companies themselves that redistribute the devices to developing nations. ReCellular, the biggest cell phone recycling company in the United States distributes used cell phones to countries where cell phones are not produced.

But cell phones do not just damage the environment after people are done using them. In some cases, cell phones begin damaging the environment before they are even made.

Coltan, a black ore that is used to make capacitors in electronic objects, has long helped to fuel wars and environmental destruction in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, according to Kim Livingstone of the San Diego Zoo.

‘Coltan miners went into the Congo to start mining because prices of coltan went up significantly,’ Livingstone said. ‘The miners actually supplemented their incomes by poaching and killing the wildlife so that they could live in the forest without needing to leave.’

The animal that was most widely killed was the gorilla, and even when it was not being poached, the gorilla’s territory was often destroyed by mines or roads. If people lose mega vertebrates, like gorillas and elephants, they’re also losing insects, amphibians and certain plants that are harmful for humans, too, Livingstone said.

‘It’s like the canary in the coalmine. If there’s any gases, the canary is going to die. But eventually, people are going to die, too,’ Livingstone said. ‘There’s a long-term effect on the entire globe, basically.’

The coltan mining in the Democratic Republic of the Congo that has killed wildlife is not an easy problem to resolve, said Eric Ronay, president of the environmental services company Eco-Cell. Not all miners are from external companies. Many of the natives of the area have trouble finding means to make money in other ways because of the political turmoil that has plagued the region, Ronay said.

‘I wish there were more opportunities for them because it’s such a beautiful diverse place where eco-tourism and other things way more socially conscious than tearing up wildlife could work.’

Many big cell phone companies did not realize even five years ago that the coltan they were buying was connected to reckless environmental destruction, Livingstone said. Many large cell phone companies do not buy coltan from the Congo area anymore, but many smaller companies still do because it’s cheaper.

‘What could happen is that the big companies that are buying the ore or coltan could manage the areas they’re getting ore from,’ Livingstone said. ‘Big companies need to make sure miners are not poaching and not eating bush meat and that they’re getting fed by other means or bringing their own food in.’

Recycling cell phones is also practical, Ohl said.

‘Mining for new gold and silver and all valued metals contained in cell phones is very problematic,’ Ohl said. ‘It takes only 200 cell phones to make a gold ring, and if you capture phones by recycling them, you can reduce the amount of mining that goes on.’

Recycling cell phones is easy and finding locations to send your cell phones should also be simple, Ronay said.

‘The recycle with eco-cell program is heavily waited on social consequences of consumption that help people understand the link between how they consume and what it affects in the world.,’Ronay said. ‘We offer recycling opportunities for free in order to help people understand more about the things they consume and also it’s giving money back to the very things that are affected by the cell phone industry.’