Japanese officials are asking citizens to donate their old electronics to create the medals, according to Nikkei Asian Review.
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On the last night of the global competition, a video beamed to the audience showed videogame icon Mario running around Tokyo in anticipation of the 2020 Summer Olympic Games to be held in that city.
The sustainable drive could make good use of Japan’s heritage as an electronics leader but first it will have to create a collection system capable of gathering the tonnes of valuable goods discarded by consumers.
Now, the government wants to double the sports industry by 2020 and triple it by 2025, making sports entertainment part of everyday life. Bronze is an alloy of copper and usually tin. Interestingly enough, Japan’s “urban mine” of small consumer electronics is said to contain the equivalent of 16% of the world’s reserves of gold, and 22% of the world’s silver reserves, which is a considerable feat for a nation with virtually no precious metals mining.
It is estimated that 16 percent of the world’s gold and 22 percent on the world’s silver is now sitting inside gadgets in Japan.
So how much material does it take to make an entire Olympic Games’ worth of medals?
1,566kg of silver was recovered vs 1,210kg required, and 1,112 tonnes of copper vs 700kg needed. By comparison, the London 2012 Olympics used 9.6 kilograms of gold, 1,210 kilograms of silver and 700 kilograms of copper to produce all of its medals.
A United Nations report from previous year said that China and the United States were the worst offenders when it comes to discarding electronics.
“A collection system should be created by the private sector, and central and local governments should be in charge of publicising such private services”.
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The country generates about 650,000 tons of e-waste from small electronics and home appliances every year, but it has been estimated that less than 100,000 tons are collected.
