Japanese organizers have asked citizens to donate old electronics, which will be broken down and used to craft medals for the 2020 Olympics.
How’s this for a novel idea? Japanese officials in charge of organizing the next Olympic Games – set to take place in 2020 – have appealed to Japanese nationals to donate old electronics (such as smartphones) to be recycled in a bid to craft new bronze, silver, and gold medals.
Electronics such as smartphones already employ gold, silver, and copper components in their construction, and all of these mechanisms can be recycled not only for use in new electronics but in other areas as well.
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Should the bid be successful, the end result is that the country won’t need to mine new materials to forge the next batch of medals for the 2020 Olympic games. TechRadar reports that an estimation posits that over 16% of the world’s gold and 22% of the world’s silver resides in defunct electronics found all over Japan.
TechRadar reports that an estimation posits that over 16% of the world’s gold and 22% of the world’s silver resides in defunct electronics found all over Japan in the country’s ‘urban mine’ of discarded technology.
The Japanese Olympic committee has approached several firms within the country to pitch ideas on recycling schemes which would encourage citizens to donate their old gadgets and electronics.
For context, the London Olympic games in 2012 made use of 9.6kg of gold, 1,210kg of silver, and 700kg of copper to craft the medals that were given away to athletes.
In 2014, Japan discarded 143kg of gold, 1,577kg of silver and 1,112 tons of copper through recycling old electronics alone.
It remains to be seen whether the bid to entice the public to donate their old electronics to support the 2020 Olympic games will be successful, as industries in the country already recycle copper, silver, and gold to produce new batches of electronic devices.
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What are your thoughts? Would you donate an old electronic for the purpose of helping forge an Olympic medal? Be sure to let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
Follow Bryan Smith on Twitter: @bryansmithSA
Source: TechRadar
