The precious metals used to make the next batch of Olympic medals might not come out of the ground but out of our pockets.
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Japan sold itself as a safe pair of hands to host the event and Abe pledged in Rio he would try to make it the best Games yet.
As the Olympic torch is snuffed out in Rio, the Japanese are already getting a jump preparing for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. In 2014, the amount of these precious metals recovered from trashed small electronics in Japan were equal to 143 kg of gold, 1,566 kg of silver and a staggering 1,112 tons of copper. Only about 100,000 tons of an estimated 650,000 tons of e-waste are recycled nationwide under existing systems.
According to recent reports, the proposal to make the medals for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics out of reclaimed metals from e-waste, such as smartphones and other gadgets, is moving forward, and the country could be able to source all the materials for the medals for both the Olympic and Paralympic games just from its own e-waste. Government-mandated e-waste collection goals established in 2013 – an annual quota of 1kg of trashed consumer electronics per person – for municipalities have largely fallen short. For the Rio 2016 games, gold medals were made without mercury, and silver and bronze medals were manufactured using 30 percent recycled materials.
The Olympic effort’s biggest hurdle (pun intended): Japan’s recycled minerals go back into making new electronic devices, so officials are hoping that by raising public awareness, the amount of e-waste collected will increase. Moreover, the gold and silver content in small consumer electronics in Japan alone is equivalent to 16% and 22% of the world’s total reserves, respectively.
Organizers are also asking Japanese companies to pitch ideas for recycling schemes to encourage citizens to donate their discarded electronics.
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E-waste medals should meet the strict criteria set by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). “A collection system should be created by the private sector, and central and local governments should be in charge of publicizing such private services”, Takeshi Kuroda of ReNet Japan Group explains to Nikkei.
