The flag, bearing the symbol of the five interlocking rings, arrived at Tokyo’s Haneda airport on charter flights with the delegation, which bagged a record 41 medals at the August 5-21 games in Rio de Janeiro. The organizer believe that even though Japan isn’t resource-rich as a country, but it could easily tap the country’s “urban mine” for the objective. In fact, it is estimated that the country has 16 per cent of the world’s gold reserves and 22 per cent of the silver, more than countries that mine for the stuff.
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The possibility of using recycled electronics for Olympic medals was first discussed in June, Japanese publication Nikkei reports, with the intention of raising public awareness and promoting a “sustainable future”. Japan’s municipalities required by the Environment Ministry to collect at least 1kg of small consumer electronics per person a year, but many are still falling short of gathering even 100 grams per person.
Precious metals collected from e-waste over the next four years would be enough to produce every single medal for the next Olympics. That amount is much higher than what was used for the 2012 London Olympics.
Some of the 2020 medals may be part-smartphone.
Usually, the organisers ask mining companies to donate the necessary metals to make the medals, but the amount of precious metals recovered from discarded electronics in Japan in 2014 included 143kg of gold, 1,566kg of silver and 1,112 tons of copper. In an effort to make their turn at the Olympics as eco-friendly as possible, Japan is looking to make the athletes’ medals out of recycled materials, specifically old cell phones.
Mr. Abe hopes the Olympics will help him meet his goal of doubling the number of annual tourists to the country to 40 million by 2020, two years after his term ends.
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“Central and local governments should be in charge of publicizing such private services”, Kuroda told Nikkei.
