Japan, like most countries, has laws created to stop discarded electronics ending up in landfill, with ambitious targets of 1kg per head per year cited.
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Typically, Olympic hosts ask mining companies to donate the necessary metal, but the gold and silver recovered from small consumer electronics in Japan has been estimated as equivalent to 16% and 22% of the world’s total reserves, respectively, according to Nikkei.
NBC uploaded a small clip showing Japan’s Prime Minister, Shinzō Abe, turning into a 3D version of Mario to travel from Tokyo to Brazil using a green warp tunnel, and popping out the other side dressed as the iconic Brooklyn plumber.
At the Rio Olympics, a gold medal’s street value was around 4 per piece, with 812 created for the Games.
Japan plans to recycle discarded electronics to create Olympic medals for Tokyo 2020.
Precious metals collected from e-waste over the next four years would be enough to produce every single medal for the next Olympics.
A meeting was held on June 10 where Tokyo Olympics officials met with government members and representatives from a mobile phone company, precious metals company, and recycling companies.
Even if the proposal is approved, Japan will likely have to ramp up its e-waste recycling.
“We need a system that makes it easy for consumers to turn in used consumer electronics”, said Takeshi Kuroda, president of ReNet Japan Group, an Obu, Aichi Prefecture-based company that purchases and sells used home appliances.
Managing the mountains of electronic waste worldwide has been one focal point of the United Nations Environment Program, which calls e-waste “one of the fastest growing waste streams in developed as well as in developing countries”.
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However, there’s one slight issue: now, Japan’s recycled precious materials are used to make new electronic devices, and it’s hard to see the nation’s citizens foregoing a new Blu-ray player or smartphone upgrade in order to help out. “If this public-private cooperation progress, the collection of electronic waste should also progress”.
