As they say, one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. When athletes at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games vie for the top three spots, their hard-earned medals will have a unique origin—electronic waste.
In April 2017, the Tokyo Organizing Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games launched a nationwide collection of discarded and obsolete electronics, including digital cameras, laptops, handheld games, and smartphones. Japan’s mobile phone operator NTT DOCOMO had more than 2,4000 stores participating as collection centers, along with 1,594 municipal authorities across the country.
As of October 2018, the committee reports municipal authorities have collected an estimated 47,488 tons of discarded devices, while NTT DOCOMO stores have amassed more than 5 million mobile phones.
Gathered amounts for bronze, silver, and gold are all on track for the summer games. The project has already reached its bronze total of 2,700 kg in June 2018. Silver is 85.4 percent near its target amount of 4,100 kg, while gold is even closer at 93.7 percent, with a goal of 30.3 kg.
The project predicts it’ll reach its objective by the March 31, 2019, enabling the manufacturing of athletes’ medals from recycled precious metals. Soon after, in the summer of 2019, the designs for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic medals will be unveiled.
Bringing the community together in a cooperate effort toward sustainability, the project certainly lives up to the slogan of the Tokyo 2020 Games: “Be better, together—for the planet and the people.”