Tokyo Olympic medals to be made from electronic

Tokyo, Feb. 8: 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 businesses and industry.

In a statement 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 of bronze, 30.3 kgs of gold and 4,100 kg of silver.