Our demand on this planet and constant requirement for more and better has left our world looking like a colossal dump. Leaving every other animal, insect and plant dealing with our ever-increasing collection of waste.
As countries look at innovative ways to save the planet, it seems Japan is using one of the most iconic sporting events in the world as a platform to showcase their futuristic skill in recycling.
Japan recycled nearly 80,000 tons of cell phones and other electronics to make the medals for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics.
While the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Tokyo are not set to kick off for still another year, Japan hasn’t wasted any time in preparing for the upcoming event.
Getting the medals ready for the legendary games, the Tokyo 2020 Medal Projects claims Tokyo 2020 is making the gold, silver and bronze medals entirely from 78,985 tons of recycled electronics, including 6.21 million recycled cellphones.
According to the Tokyo 2020 Medal Project, the Tokyo 2020 organisers collected old electronics over a two-year time period, extracting enough metals for approximately 5 000 Olympic and Paralympic gold, silver and bronze medals.
The collection saw 1 621 municipalities across Japan contributing to the cause. NTT DoCoMo Inc, the predominant cell phone operator in Japan also assisted in the project.
The final amounts of metals collected through tearing the old electronic devices apart are as follows:
Gold: Appx. 32kg
Silver: Appx. 3,500kg
Bronze: Appx. 2,200kg.
“We are grateful for everyone’s cooperation with this project. We hope that our project to recycle small consumer electronics and our efforts to contribute to an environmentally friendly and sustainable society will become a legacy of the Tokyo 2020 Games,” says Tokyo 2020.
With Japan tackling the growing concern of recycling, by coming up with this great initiative, will other countries be following suit and coming up with other creative ways to address the issue of wastage?
