{"id":11894,"date":"2019-03-14t13:11:54","date_gmt":"2019-03-14t13:11:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dpetrov.2create.studio\/planet\/wordpress\/your-old-phone-could-become-a-medal-for-the-2020-tokyo-olympics\/"},"modified":"2023-02-28t18:46:11","modified_gmt":"2023-02-28t18:46:11","slug":"olympic-medals-recycling-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/\/www.getitdoneaz.com\/story\/olympic-medals-recycling-2020\/","title":{"rendered":"your old phone could become a medal for the 2020 tokyo olympics"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>by cyan zhong<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>if you live in japan, you might have a chance to see top athletes all over the world wear your old phones on their necks next summer.<\/p>\n<p>well, not quite, but close. the tokyo organizing committee of the olympic and paralympic games has been collecting used electronics all over japan, including old cellphones and home appliances. the plan is to extract the metal and make \u2013 you guessed it \u2013 olympic medals.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" height=\"338\" src=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2019\/03\/melt.jpg\" width=\"600\" \/><figcaption>a japanese factory is melting the electronics to extract the metal within. (tanaka kikinzoku kogyo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cthe medal project,\u201d as the committee calls it, is a big part of sustainability innovations ahead of the games. kicked off in april 2017, the project is now near the finish line \u2013 march marks the last month of collection, said tatsuo ogura, senior manager of international communications for the committee.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cwhen we started this project in 2017, we expected it to finish in two years,\u201d ogura said. \u201cwe are on the right track and we almost met with the goal.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>the committee fulfilled the 2,700-kilogram goal (that&#8217;s nearly 3 tons) of bronze collection last june. in october, it met 93.7% of the target for salvaging gold and 85.4 percent for silver, ogura said.<\/p>\n<p>a total of 1,500 municipalities across japan are involved in the medal project, and they put the signature yellow donation boxes at post offices or street corners for citizens to donate their used devices, ogura said. they can also donate at 2,400 ntt docomo stores nationwide, japan\u2019s predominant mobile phone operator.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cwe believe that, by supporting schemes like the medal project which encourage participation by the public, we can draw attention to the importance of recycling and help realize an environmentally friendly and sustainable society,\u201d a ntt docomo representative said in an email. &nbsp;<\/p>\n<figure class=\"image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2019\/03\/box.jpg\" width=\"600\" \/><figcaption>the yellow donation box allows people all over japan to donate their used electronic devices. many athletes are on board with the project and signed their names to back the cause. (cyan zhong)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>ntt docomo began recycling used mobile phones in 1998. the company is dedicated to \u201curban mining,\u201d the process of \u201creclaiming raw materials from used products, buildings and waste,\u201d according to sintef, a european independent research organization.<\/p>\n<p>surging demands for electronic devices each year indicate huge market potential in urban mining. the annual production of electronic goods in the world required \u201c320 tons of gold and over 7,500 tons of silver, with a combined value of $21 billion,\u201d from which only 15% is recovered, according to a study by the solving the e-waste problem initiative (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.step-initiative.org\/\">step<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p>as part of its contribution to the medal project, ntt docomo also runs educational workshops to teach school children about the precious mineral resources in mobile phones and other consumer electronics, the representative said in the email.<\/p>\n<p>over the span of the project, japanese municipalities received approximately 47,488 tons of used electronic devices in total, including 5.07 million used mobile phones. people need to be informed on how many resources they have just within their homes, ogura said.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" height=\"327\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/phone.png\" width=\"600\" \/><figcaption>the old phones collected will be dismantled and metals extracted. (photo courtesy of tokyo 2020 organizing committee)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>promoting an environmentally friendly and sustainable society is deeply connected to tokyo\u2019s vision for the&nbsp; 2020 olympic and paralympic games. \u201csports has the power to change the world and our future,\u201d ogura said, and the international sporting event is a great opportunity to send a message to the world.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cwe tried to show our stance to the vision and it is really important to leave that intangible legacy to japanese society and also to the world, especially for the younger generation,\u201d ogura said.<\/p>\n<p>the purpose behind this project is twofold, he said. following the sustainable development goals (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/sustainable-development-goals\/\">sdg<\/a>) set by the united nations, the tokyo olympics committee is dedicated to achieve zero waste through recycling, but it also wants to engage and excite the public ahead of the games.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" height=\"338\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/gold.jpg\" width=\"600\" \/><figcaption>the committee almost reached its target for gold extraction. (tanaka kikinzoku kogyo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>people usually start engaging when volunteer applications open or ticket sales start, ogura said, but the medal project gave them an early opportunity to take part in the quadrennial event.<\/p>\n<p>\u201ctokyo won the bid in september 2013. at that moment, japanese people are really enthusiastic about hosting the games, but it\u2019s a long way,\u201d ogura said. \u201cwe obviously need to retain the enthusiasm and excitement.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>the tokyo organizing committee of the olympic and paralympic games has been collecting used electronics all over japan to extract the metal and make olympic medals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9417,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4900,4920],"tags":[828,4246,172,2078,232],"storyfest_categories":[],"class_list":["post-11894","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-green-living","category-recycling-upcycling","tag-japan","tag-olympics","tag-recycling","tag-reuse","tag-urban"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- this site is optimized with the yoast seo plugin v24.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>your old phone could become a medal for the 2020 tokyo olympics - planet forward<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"\/\/www.getitdoneaz.com\/story\/olympic-medals-recycling-2020\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_us\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"your old phone could become a medal for the 2020 tokyo olympics - planet forward\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"the tokyo organizing committee of the olympic and paralympic games has been collecting used electronics all over japan to extract the metal and make olympic medals.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"\/\/www.getitdoneaz.com\/story\/olympic-medals-recycling-2020\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"planet forward\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/planetforward.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-03-14t13:11:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-02-28t18:46:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2019\/03\/melt.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"medill news service\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@planet_forward\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@planet_forward\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"medill news service\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"article\",\"@id\":\"\/\/www.getitdoneaz.com\/story\/olympic-medals-recycling-2020\/#article\",\"ispartof\":{\"@id\":\"\/\/www.getitdoneaz.com\/story\/olympic-medals-recycling-2020\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"medill news service\",\"@id\":\"\/\/www.getitdoneaz.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9870afaf5af3533aa2269c37b200e503\"},\"headline\":\"your old phone could become a medal for the 2020 tokyo olympics\",\"datepublished\":\"2019-03-14t13:11:54+00:00\",\"datemodified\":\"2023-02-28t18:46:11+00:00\",\"mainentityofpage\":{\"@id\":\"\/\/www.getitdoneaz.com\/story\/olympic-medals-recycling-2020\/\"},\"wordcount\":723,\"commentcount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"\/\/www.getitdoneaz.com\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"\/\/www.getitdoneaz.com\/story\/olympic-medals-recycling-2020\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailurl\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2019\/03\/melt.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"japan\",\"olympics\",\"recycling\",\"reuse\",\"urban\"],\"articlesection\":[\"克罗地亚vs加拿大让球
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