Alyssa Briana Tarazon

Gorillas are on the line! Will you answer the call? Electronics are connected to gorillas via an ore called Coltan. Coltan is refined into Tantalum which coats capacitors inside e-gadgets and makes them energy efficient. This ore is found in great quantity in the Congo, home to the critically endangered gorilla and chimpanzee. The U.N. has reported that in the past five years the eastern lowland gorilla population in the Congo has declined 90% owing to these mining operations and related poaching of gorillas for bushmeat. Recycling your cell phones helps save these animals by raising funds for gorilla conservation and reducing the demand for Coltan. You can donate your old cell phones, smartphones, ipads, ipods, tablets, GPS, smartwatches, digital cameras and all the cords and cables that come with them. Any condition is fine. A electronics donation box can be found right outside the Zoo's ticket window. BE SURE TO WIPE YOUR DATA AHEAD OF TIME.

Pinterest may want you to think that you need a cupboard full of matching mason jars, but reusing what we already have is one of the best ways to reduce our waste. This month, instead of recycling glass jars (such as pasta sauce, pickles, and salsa jars), I will save them to reuse for food storage.

Get creative in the kitchen (or the garden)! Before tossing food scraps, I'll explore other ways to utilize the scraps and give them another life.

Vegetable broth cartons are not easily recycled and often not accepted for recycling at all. To avoid or reduce my use of these cartons, I will save my vegetable scraps and fresh herb stems to make homemade vegetable broth instead.