Tokyo Olympics medals are made of recycled metal extracted from 6.21 million cell phones

Playing at the Olympics in itself is a great achievement for the athletes, and winning a medal is an inexpressible moment. This year, the joy of taking home a medal is doubled as the medals are made considering the environmental crisis. For the first time in history- gold, silver, and bronze Olympic and Paralympic medals are produced from recycled small electronic devices including cell phones.

For the past two years, the Tokyo 2020 Medal Project collected 78,985 tons of electronic devices including 6.21 million cell phones from across Japan to produce the 5,000 Olympic medals. With the process of smelting, the gold, silver, and bronze elements of the devices were extracted from the electrical devices.

According to the official website of the Tokyo Games, it's the first time in Olympic history that medals were made using recycled metal, and the first time that ordinary citizens have been involved in their production.

Tokyo's sustainability projects

The event's name and logo are recycled as the organizers decided not to rebrand the 2020 Games that was postponed amid the COVID pandemic. While the cardboard patterned beds have already made headlines as some theorized that they are designed to prevent athletes from having sex. Later Olympic officials clarified that the beds were provided because of their sustainability and sturdiness.

The podiums are made of recycled plastic and the Olympic torch has aluminium that was recycled from the temporary housing used after Japan's Fukushima disaster.

The Games’ sustainability further plan set a target of reusing or recycling 65% of waste generated during the event, and organizers are also aiming to recycle or reuse 99% of goods procured for the games.

Sustainability efforts are declining

Analysts quote that the efforts of eco-friendly set up at the Olympics are exaggerated. Sven Daniel Wolfe, lecturer, and researcher at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland, has said, "Unfortunately, the data show that sustainability in all dimensions is decreasing over time from 1992 to 2020".

Wolfe added, "The decline is happening in spite of the fact that environmentalism and sustainability is one of the pillars of the Olympic movement". 

The Olympics have increasingly been questioned over their lack of sustainability. For instance, in 2018, the Olympic Stadium for the Pyeongchang Olympics was made by spending $100 million which was torn down after the Games.

(Image credit: AP/UNSPLASH)