Partly recycled materials were used for the medals for the Rio 2016 Olympics.
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Abe, who emerged from the Super Mario outfit in his usual get-up of a smartly tailored suit and tie, was getting mostly favorable commentary on his impersonation of the game character.
The London games used 21 lbs. of gold; 2,667.5 lbs. of silver; and 1,543.2 lbs. of copper to make their medals.
“We want to contribute to building momentum for hosting the 2020 Tokyo Games”, a ministry official said, adding the ministry plans to mint the coins several times toward the opening of the 2020 Games.
While this is a sustainable option, there are some roadblocks in the process, including the fact that “much of the metal that is recovered is already being reused to make new electronics”, reports the Review. 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. The country’s e-waste stream could certainly provide enough precious metals to cover the demand; the problem lies with collecting the discarded devices from the public.
One phone contains small amounts, but when you scale that up to all the old electronics across the entire nation of Japan, you’re looking at a sizable chunk of the world’s precious metals.
Britain won 27 golds on their way to a second-placed finish in the medal table, their best haul in over 100 years, and now BBC Radio 5live are reporting that the government have confirmed the increase, which was agreed to by the previous administration, will still be awarded.
A lot of the electronics now collected through the programmes are already being recycled into other products, meaning that more of the electronics Japan’s residents discard each year will need to be collected.
“We need a system that makes it easy for consumers to turn in used consumer electronics”, said Takeshi Kuroda, president of Japanese home appliance firm ReNet.
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Organizers are also asking Japanese companies to pitch ideas for recycling schemes to encourage citizens to donate their discarded electronics.
