At this point in 2021, the 2020 Tokyo Olympics They should already be a memory from a year ago. But the historical pandemic that we are still experiencing delayed everything, even some Olympic Games that had not been delayed since World War II.
Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 in 2021
We should have already seen Toyota’s flying car carrying the torch to the furrier, Super Mario and other figures of popular culture born in Japan as mascots and masters of ceremony but it was not like that.
This year, in which the world hopes to recover that rhythm of life that has been stopped for more than 1 year, and if nothing else happens, the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games will be held. In fact, RTVE and Discovery have signed an agreement for the broadcast of 400 hours in Tokyo 2020 open, which will be held from July 23 to August 8, 2021, after the cancellation of the event last year due to the coronavirus pandemic. In other words, the Olympics start in less than 48 hours.
Recycled medal table
Japan has emerged as one of the most ‘geeky’ organizers of the Olympic Games in recent years. And it is that in the closing ceremony of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games (of which Spain took 17 Olympic medals as 17 cathedrals), none other than the Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe appeared transformed from Super Mario, Nintendo’s flagship character and one of the greatest icons in video game history, in a promo video for Tokyo 2020 in which neither Pokémon were missing, Oliver and Benji Superchamps (Captain Tsubasa), Pac-Man is Hello Kitty.
Given such a promotional video, it is not surprising that we are looking forward to seeing the opening ceremony, but the truth is that today we are going to focus on another of the most iconic elements in an Olympics: The Medals.
Since Rio 2016, Japan began to prepare its Tokyo 2020, and one of the first problems was related to the medal table, which begins with the supply of essential raw materials such as gold, silver and bronze. But how do you solve this when your country is not exactly rich in these natural resources? Well, pulling imagination and at the same time thinking about the environment and recycling what they call a “mina urbana“in the form of the huge amount of mobile phones and other electronic devices disposed of in the country for the medal table.
Material for various Olympics
The organizers of the Olympics met in June 2016 with organizers, government officials and executives to discuss the approach plan, and incidentally address the enormous problem of the ‘e-waste‘or electronic waste in Japan.
According to the Nikkei media, only the gold and silver that are among the components of electronic devices discarded in Japan constitute respectively 16% and 22% of global gold and silver supplies, and with them and the bronze that is part of other elements of mobile phones and tablets there would be enough to create the medals.
At the 2012 Olympics, the medals awarded were made in total with 9.6 kilos of gold, 1,210 kilos of silver and 700 kilos of copper. According to a report, the amount of precious materials that Japan recovered from the ‘e-waste’ (electrical and electronic devices to destroy, recycle, etc.) in 2014 was 143 kilos of gold, 1,566 kilos of silver and 1,112 tons of bronze, which would give more than enough for several editions of the Olympics.
e-Waste valuable
Japan generates 650,000 tons of e-waste per year, and only less than 100,000 are collected to produce new electronic devices, so this initiative would also be a form of recycling.
Enlarge
In 2019 the Tokyo organization for the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games announced that he hoped to achieve the goals set for medals made from discarded electronic components. The committee noted that the reception of the plan was enormous, counting over the years since the announcement in Rio 2016 to 2019 with “High levels of support from the public and companies throughout Japan and from national and international athletes”. This has led the authorities to managed to pick up about 79,000 tons of e-waste.
The most sustainable Olympic Games in history
The goal of the Committee was to obtain the necessary amount of gold, silver and bronze from these devices to create the medals. The collection program ended on March 31, 2019, being a success with more than 6.21 million smartphones which were deposited in Japan’s NTT Docomo stores and collection stations in public buildings and post offices.
In total, Japan managed to recycle of the old devices:
– 32 kilos of gold
– 3,500 kilos of silver
– 2,200 kilos of bronze.
Japan has emerged as one of the most ‘geeky’ organizers of the Olympic Games in recent years. And it is that in the closing ceremony of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games (of which Spain took 17 Olympic medals as 17 cathedrals), none other than the Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe appeared transformed from Super Mario, Nintendo’s flagship character and one of the greatest icons in video game history, in a promo video for Tokyo 2020 in which neither Pokémon were missing, Oliver and Benji Superchamps (Captain Tsubasa), Pac-Man is Hello Kitty.
Given such a promotional video, it is not surprising that we are looking forward to seeing the opening ceremony, but the truth is that today we are going to focus on another of the most iconic elements in an Olympics: The Medals.
Since Rio 2016, Japan began to prepare its Tokyo 2020, and one of the first problems was related to the medal table, which begins with the supply of essential raw materials such as gold, silver and bronze. But how do you solve this when your country is not exactly rich in these natural resources? Well, pulling imagination and at the same time thinking about the environment and recycling what they call a “mina urbana“in the form of the huge amount of mobile phones and other electronic devices disposed of in the country for the medal table.
Material for various Olympics
The organizers of the Olympics met in June 2016 with organizers, government officials and executives to discuss the approach plan, and incidentally address the enormous problem of the ‘e-waste‘or electronic waste in Japan.
According to the Nikkei media, only the gold and silver that are among the components of electronic devices discarded in Japan constitute respectively 16% and 22% of global gold and silver supplies, and with them and the bronze that is part of other elements of mobile phones and tablets there would be enough to create the medals.
At the 2012 Olympics, the medals awarded were made in total with 9.6 kilos of gold, 1,210 kilos of silver and 700 kilos of copper. According to a report, the amount of precious materials that Japan recovered from the ‘e-waste’ (electrical and electronic devices to destroy, recycle, etc.) in 2014 was 143 kilos of gold, 1,566 kilos of silver and 1,112 tons of bronze, which would give more than enough for several editions of the Olympics.
e-Waste valuable
Japan generates 650,000 tons of e-waste per year, and only less than 100,000 are collected to produce new electronic devices, so this initiative would also be a form of recycling.
Enlarge
In 2019 the Tokyo organization for the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games announced that he hoped to achieve the goals set for medals made from discarded electronic components. The committee noted that the reception of the plan was enormous, counting over the years since the announcement in Rio 2016 to 2019 with “High levels of support from the public and companies throughout Japan and from national and international athletes”. This has led the authorities to managed to pick up about 79,000 tons of e-waste.
The most sustainable Olympic Games in history
The goal of the Committee was to obtain the necessary amount of gold, silver and bronze from these devices to create the medals. The collection program ended on March 31, 2019, being a success with more than 6.21 million smartphones which were deposited in Japan’s NTT Docomo stores and collection stations in public buildings and post offices.
In total, Japan managed to recycle of the old devices:
– 32 kilos of gold
– 3,500 kilos of silver
– 2,200 kilos of bronze.
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