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| Tokyo's organising committee in 2017 launched a project to collect assorted electronic waste -- including old smartphones and laptops -- from the public to collect metal for the medals. |
All medals for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics will be made from metal collected by recycling electronic waste, games organisers said on Friday.
Tokyo's
organising committee in 2017 launched a project to collect assorted electronic
waste -- including old smartphones and laptops -- from the public to collect
metal for the medals.
Recycled
metal has also been collected from local Japanese businesses and industry.
In a
statement issued on Friday, organisers said the collection was expected to
reach its goal and will end in late March.
By November
last year, municipal authorities had already collected 47,488 tonnes of
discarded devices, with the public handing in another five million used phones
to a local network provider.
Organisers
had set a target of 2,700 kgs (about 5,950 pounds) of bronze, 30.3 kgs (67
pounds) of gold and 4,100 kg (about 9,040 pounds) of silver.
They hit
the target for bronze last June, and by October had more than 90 percent of the
gold and 85 percent of the silver.
"It is
estimated that the remaining amounts of metal required to manufacture all
Olympic and Paralympic medals can be extracted from the devices already
donated," the organisers said.
Recycled
metals have been used in previous years to make Olympic medals, including in
Rio where some 30 percent of the silver and bronze in medals came from recycled
materials.
The designs
for the Tokyo 2020 medals will be unveiled later this year.
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