Japanese give unnecessary gadgets to make Olympic medals out of them

The 2020 Summer Olympics, which will be held in Japan, have already gone down in history as the most environmentally friendly. The fact is that absolutely all the medals that will be awarded to the winning athletes of these games will be made of metals obtained by processing unnecessary electronics.

Disposing of used computer equipment, smartphones, and other high-tech devices has a number of problems. This type of waste has a high content of copper, lead, gold, silver and valuable alloys. Therefore, their simple burial at landfills is fraught with environmental pollution by highly toxic metals, and therefore unacceptable. On the other hand, precious and semiprecious metals could become secondary raw materials for the production of similar devices if they could be recovered. This is where the main problems arise related to the low profitability of such production. In developed countries, few people are engaged in the extraction of valuable components from used electronics, preferring to store these wastes and send them for processing to other countries, such as China or African republics. Of course, they mainly use primitive methods of analyzing equipment and extracting valuable components, so more harm than good is likely to be observed from such disposal.

The organizers of the upcoming Olympics in Tokyo decided once again to remind about the problem of recycling used gadgets and electronics, as well as rid the country of some electronic garbage. The idea was actively supported by public organizations, and collection points for unnecessary smartphones and other electronic waste were opened throughout the country. During this action, more than 50 tons of waste have already been collected, from which several tons of silver and bronze, as well as a significant amount of gold, have been obtained.

Such an initiative will certainly create a positive image for the organizers of the competition and serve as a good example for others. Indeed, professional disposal of such waste with the maximum extraction of useful components not only saves the planet from toxic waste, but also saves money aimed at the extraction of these metals in the traditional way.