Japan Wants to Make Olympic Medals from Used Electronic Parts

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe emerged as Super Mario during the closing ceremony of the Rio Olympic Games.

Vice chairman of the British Olympic Association Sir Hugh Robertson believes the extra cash, which is supplemented by National Lottery funding, will be vital in preparing for the next eight-year cycle to include the Tokyo Games in 2020 and the so far unawarded Games in 2024.

The nation is looking to a new source for the materials to make the medals: electronics.

The report comes from Japanese website Nikkei, which says organizers of the next Olympic Games would like gold, silver and bronze medals to be sourced purely from donated electronics. Japan was sixth in Río 2016 and won 12 gold medals, their best tally since 2004, and a record 41 overall. Bronze is an alloy of copper and usually tin.

Japan’s e-waste “mine” is equivalent to 16 percent of the world’s gold and 22 percent of the world’s silver.

It is estimated that 16 percent of the world’s gold and 22 percent on the world’s silver is now sitting inside gadgets in Japan. 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.

So how much material does it take to make an entire Olympic Games’ worth of medals?

The proposal has already been discussed with industry insiders, government and organisers, and statistics have shown that 143kg of gold was recovered from the urban mine in 2014, compared with 9.6kg used to make the medals at the London Games. About 650,000 tons of small electronics and electric home appliances are discarded in Japan every year, but only less than 100,000 tons are collected under a system based on the small appliance recycling law, which was implemented in 2013.

The Olympic planning committee is also working with tech companies to pitch ideas for electronic recycling collection programs.

Kuroda is devising a plan for a collection system created by the private sector.