The 2020 Olympic Games will take place in Japan next summer.

The Olympic Committee has justrevealed its first ecologic idea: all medals will be made out of precious metals recycled from discarded electronics.

They had the idea to strip the small quantities of gold, silver, platinum, and nickel from old mobile-phones or playstations.

Japan citizens waste an estimated 650,000 tons of small electronics and home appliances every year by replacing their gadgets much too frequently.. 

The Olympic Committee launched the “Everyone’s Medal” campaign in February 2017 to ask citizens to give their unused gadgets at one of the collection points. 

They needed millions of devices to recycle 8 tons of material needed for the 5,000 Olympic and Paralympic medal but by the end of the campaign in March 2017, they had collected enough: Japanese residents donated almost 80 thousand tons of gadgets, including more than 6 million smartphones. 

The medals were shown to the public on July 24^th, 2019.  They are designed by a graphic artist based in Osaka. They measure 85 mm in diameter and the five interlocking Olympic rings can be seen on them together with the Greek goddess of victory Nike.

Thanks to the successful recycling effort, the Tokyo 2020 gold medals are pure silver with 6 grams of gold plating and the silver medals are 100 percent pure silver.  The bronze medal is made up of 95 percent copper and 5 percent zinc. The medals will be placed in a circular case made from Japanese ash wood and accompanied by unique ribbons, inspired by traditional Japanese kimonos.

The Olympic Committee hopes the medals will help raise awareness of the alarming increase in electronic waste all around the world. They would like customers to think twice before changing their devices only to upgrade them.

They hope the medals will be a good means to change people’s thoughts on avoiding waste.

Due to the Coronavirus Pandemic, the 2020 Olympic Games finally took place in 2021!