Tokyo Olympic organisers make 2020 medals from e-waste

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Spotted: The 2020 Olympic organising committee in Tokyo is using old and discarded smartphones, laptops and other electronics (known as e-waste) to make medals for the 2020 Games. This is the first time Olympic medals are being crafted from publicly donated e-waste.

Organisers say that from the waste they need to extract 30.3kg of gold, 4,100kg of silver and 2,700kg of bronze. Schools, businesses and volunteers from other organisations have already turned in enough old electronics to make 94 percent of the gold medals, 85 percent of the silver medals and all of the bronze medals.

The effort is part of a growing push to recycle or reuse waste from electronics. Whilst this programme is limited to Japan, the amount of e-waste from smartphones, tablets and other devices is growing. An estimated 47,488 tons of discarded devices have been collected across Japan, including over 5 million used mobile phones, the organisation said. The collection programme will continue until March 2019.

Takeaway: The Tokyo 2020 effort is a reflection of a growing awareness of the amount of e-waste, including precious metals, that are discarded each year. An estimated $65 billion worth of minerals were thrown away in 2016 from old smartphones and other electronic devices. Only 20 percent was recycled. We expect to see more innovative ideas on how to recycle and reuse the valuable metals in devices. There have already been efforts to make it easier to recycle e-waste, and more effective methods to extract gold and other precious metals from mobile phones.

Website: www.tokyo2020.org
Contact: www.tokyo2020.org/contact

Published in: February 2019

Source: New feed 1