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Tokyo Olympic organisers make 2020 medals from e-waste

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The 2020 Olympic medals will be made from old smart phones, laptops and tablets

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.

Email: contact-center@volunteer.tokyo2020.jp

Website: www.tokyo2020.org

Contact: www.tokyo2020.org/contact

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