One year out from the Tokyo games Japan has unveiled its Olympic medals, which will adorn winning athletes in metals recycled from discarded gadgets. Tons of scrap metal was recovered from small electronics collected all over the country for the initiative, which it's hoped will help leave a legacy of sustainability around the 2020 games.
The project actually kicked off in April 2017, when the games' organizing committee kicked off what it called the Tokyo 2020 Medal Project. Across the country between then and March 2019, municipal authorities collected 79,000 tons of small electronic devices, while NTT DoCoMo phone stores collected around 6.1 million mobile phones.
From this bounty, around 32 kg (70 lb) of gold, 3,500 kg (7,700 lb) of silver and 2,200 kg (4,850 lb) of bronze was able to be extracted. These recycled metals will now be used to produce every last one of the approximately 5,000 medals to be awarded throughout the games in July and August next year.
The remaining parts of the recovered devices, meanwhile, will be dismantled and recycled through the Japanese government's Act on Promotion of Recycling of Small Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment.
The video below shows the medals in a closer detail.
Source: Tokyo 2020