Those laced with the responsibility of organizing the 2020 Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo have set an ambitious target to produce silver, gold, and bronze medals from the metals gotten from garbage or disposed smartphones as well as any other abandoned electronics.
According to the report, government officials, the Olympic organizers, as well as executives had first come together in discussions of such an arrangement in course of a June meeting organized by a Japanese NGO. The aim is to realize a scheme which would greatly contribute in raising public awareness around so-called “e-waste,” (electronic waste) though there is still need for Japan to roll in a more detailed system for the purpose of collection of discarded electronics.
Of course Japan is not that rich compared to other countries as regards resources but then Japan boasts a kind of expansive “urban mine” of precious metals sourced from e-waste. Going by reports from Nikkei, the sliver and gold encased in the Japan’s discarded electronics is responsible for 22% and 16 % of global supply.
With this in mind, there is little doubt its electronic supply will suffice for the production of Olympic medals. After all, the medals which athletes were awarded back in the 2012 Olympic Games were made from 1,210 kilograms of silver, 9.6 kilograms of gold, as well as 700 kilograms of copper. And just in 2014, Japan recorded a remarkable recovery of 143 kilograms of gold, 1,112 tons of copper and 1,566 kilograms of silver from abandoned or disposed electronic devices.
