Electronic gadgets have precious materials that can be recycled and the organizing committee for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games had previously said that it wanted to make atheles’ medals out of discarded gadgets. The committee has received “huge levels of support from the public and companies across Japan and from national and international athletes,” with municipal authorities collection some 47,500 tons of e-waste.
That 47,500 tons of e-waste includes over five million discarded phones which people dropped at NTT Docomo stores in Japan. The committee has set up collection states in public buildings and post offices. People were encouraged to participate in this initiative.
The committee was able to meet its target of collection 2,700 kg of bronze in June last year while it had achieved 93.7 percent of the 30.3 kg gold target and 85.4 percent of the 4,100 kg silver target by October 2018. It’s yet to hit the entire goal for gold and silver collection but given the amount of discarded electronics the committee has collected, it’s confident that they have enough gadgets on hand to meet the goal.
The program hasn’t been stopped as yet so there’s ample time for people to drop in more unused devices. It’s going to shut down this program on March 31st this year ahead of the reveal of the Olympic and Paralympic medal designs that is due this summer.
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