There are few things more desirable for an athlete in the world than to win a medal at the Olympics. Whether it is gold, silver or bronze, the price is so great and important, but at the same time rare, as there are few – compared to the population of the earth – who have managed to win one of them. This year, however, the medals in Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games have a peculiarity, as they are not made of the materials that usually create the medals of the respective Olympic Games.
As part of Japan’s commitment to sustainability and striving to achieve the most environmentally friendly Olympics possible, each of the medals is made of precious metals rescued from used electronic devices.
Through the Tokyo 2020 Medal Project, the Games organizers sought donations of used electronic equipment from citizens across Japan, making, according to grunge.com, the first time in the history of the Olympic and Paralympic Games that a country has asked for help from citizens. for the creation and construction of medals for competitors.
The project started in April 2017 and lasted two years, with more than 78,985 tons of small electronic devices being collected through 1,621 municipalities throughout Japan, along with an additional 6.21 million used mobile phones from the dominant mobile operator NTT Docomo. It is noteworthy that the call was answered by the astonishing 90% of the cities, towns and villages of the country.
The Tokyo 2020 Medal Project, in fact, reported that enough quantities of electronics were collected to create about 32 kilos of gold, 3,500 kilos of silver and 2,200 kilos of copper, which were used to create 100% of the 5,000 medals of the event.
Once the electronics were assembled, they were disassembled and then the metals were extracted by the melting process, in which heat and chemicals are used to melt the elements into their basic form, removing any impurities.
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