Tokyo 2020 promises to break Olympic & Paralympic records, but recycling old gadgets into medals may be its best idea.
Organisers of next year’s Summer Olympics say they want to forge all winning athletes’ medals from recycled electronics waste, or eWaste. Consisting of discarded and obsolete electronic devices it includes smartphones, digital cameras, handheld games consoles, and laptops.
The nationwide hunt for old technology began in April 2017 and is planned to be finished by the end of March. The targeted amount of copper–some 2,700kg–was already extracted from these by June of last year.
The project has not only raised public awareness of the Games but drawn attention the Tokyo 2020 slogan ‘Be better, together ― for the planet and the people’.
The medal designs will be unveiled early next year.
More detail: https://tokyo2020.org/en/news/notice/20190208-03.html
