The Olympic Games is one of the major sporting events around the world. Many are the athletes who aspire to win a medal, of whatever metal, in these events that are held every 4 years. The next edition of the Olympic Games will be held in Japan next year.
The Tokyo organizing committee for the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games intends that the gold, silver and bronze medals are made from recycled smartphones and other electronic devices that are being removed from a few months ago.
According to the committee, many are the users and companies that are supporting this idea, with which they have achieved obtain 47.488 tons of electronic devices. This figure includes more than 5 million smartphones that were no longer in use and that were delivered to NTT Docomo stores, one of the largest operators in the country.
To proceed with the collection of disused electronic devices, containers have been distributed both in post offices and in other public buildings. The committee's goal of 2.700 kg of bronze se fulfilled in June of last year, While 93,7% of the 30,3 kilograms of gold and 85,4 of the 4.1000 kilograms of silver, was reached last October.
Although the target amounts of gold and silver have not been recovered yet, this estimate is based on the number of devices that have already been collected, but according to the organizing committee, there will be enough material to reach the goal. The program will end on March 31st. The designs for the Olympic and Paralympic metallas will be unveiled this summer.
The idea of making the medals from electronic devices was announced last summer, although at the time it was not known if it would be feasible. The government organization that came up with this idea has alreadythere were enough electronic devices to dispose of but he did not have the means to create an organized gathering.
The gold and silver that we can find in the electronics that Japan discards represent 16 and 22 percent respectively of the world supply, more than enough to be able to produce the medals for the next Olympic Games. The medals awarded at the 2012 Olympic Games were made from 9,6 kg of gold, 1.210 kg of silver and 700 kg of bronze. In 2014, Japan recovered 143 kg of gold, 1.566 kg of silver and 1.112 tons of copper from devices that were discarded by users.
Apple committed to recycling
Apple has always been a strong advocate for recycling its products. Started an iPhone reuse and recycling program in 2013 with reusable devices sold second-hand market and non-repairable devices sent for recycling.
A couple of years ago, he introduced Liam, a robot that takes care of disassembling each iPhone and classifying its parts to reuse or recycle them. Soon after, he introduced Daisy, a more advanced version. In addition, Apple committed in 2017 to stop relying on mining operations to obtain some of the components necessary for the manufacture of its devices and to start using products made from recycled materials.