Tokyo 2020: Olympic medals made from old smartphone , laptops.

Tokyo 2020: Olympic medals made from old smartphone , laptops.

As the athletes take the podium and, with a slight bow, have their medals placed around their necks, they will be happy to have landed in the top three. For the people behind the Tokyo Medal Project, they'll be happy that those Olympic medals are there in the first place. 

The project recycled old electronic gadgets such as smartphones and laptops to produce the Olympic Medals that are being awarded at the Tokyo Games.

For the people of Japan, the project offered a unique opportunity to be a part of the Games.

"The campaign called on the public to donate obsolete electronic devices for the project," Toyko 2020 spokesperson Hitomi Kamizawa told DW. "We are grateful for everyone's cooperation."

The project capitalized on the fact that billions worth of precious metals such gold and silver , which are used in electronic devices . get discarded each year globally.as thanks to people simply dumping or burning their gadgets instead of ensuring they are properly collected and recycled.

A recycling supply chain

There was a two-year national effort in Japan to collect enough recycled material to produce about 5,000 bronze , silver, and gold medals for the 2020 Tokyo olympics. Up to 90% of Japanese cities, towns, and villages participated by setting up donation pick-up sites where hundreds of thousands of Japanese citizens donated their old electronic devices.  

The recycling campaign produced 70 pounds (32 kilograms) of gold, 7,700 pounds of silver and 4,850 pounds of bronze. All from nearly 80 tons of small electrical devices such as old phones and laptops, said Kamizawa.