Hi guys, welcome back to my blog.
Sincerely, I have not been too inspired lately about what to write. However, scrolling through Instagram I found something interesting to share with you.
Some sports events attract the attention of lots of viewers worldwide. The most popular event, more than Superbowl and Champions League final are the Olympic Games. The next Olympic Games will be held by the Japanese city of Tokyo in the summer of 2020.
The thing that draws my attention is the new initiative that the Tokyo Organizing Committee has. As we all know, there are three types of medals given to the athletes: gold for first, silver for second and bronze for the third. This won’t change. What will change is that all the medals that will be won by athletes in Tokyo will be made from recycled metallic parts from discarded electronic devices. In total, 5000 medals will be manufactured from reused metals.
The project involves citizen participation as the electronic devices will be provided by the Japanese population. The recollection started in April 2017 and so far the organizers can assure that there is enough metal to manufacture the desired number of medals. The following picture shows us the amount of metal collected by October 2018.
The recollection will finish on March the 31st successfully collecting all the materials needed to pursue the project objectives.
The initiative will have high notoriety and will encourage more similar initiatives for not only future Olympic Games but also for other competitions. In the following link, you can find the promotional video made the Organizing Committee: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Suzi_McCdPE&feature=youtu.be
Before reading this post, I’ve actually never thought twice about what Olympic medals were made out of. So I did some digging. Gold and silver medals are 92.5% silver, and gold medals must be plated with at least 6g of gold. That’s pretty awesome. I guess I don’t really think about “oh what’s an Olympic medal made out of?” mainly because it’s an event that happens every 4 years and I’m only watching 3 events or something. Despite that, I think it’s awesome that not just the organization but a whole CITY is pushing for this sustainable project. The Olympics is such an incredibly popular global event that millions and millions of people watch. This kind of exposure is insanely strong and I love how the video brings in actual Olympic medalists to speak their views on the project. I found it interesting to see how one country communicates its sustainability initiatives vs another. I also actually found out that in the last Olympics, the medals at Rio were made from eco-friendly materials, including recycled materials. I’m glad to see that this is an ongoing trend and that different countries are picking up on this sustainable theme.
This is also great example of an organization directly making sustainable products rather than leaving it up to the consumers to decide. Olympic winners aren’t necessary ‘consumers’ of the medal (they’re given it) but by sort of forcing the victors to take home their prized possession made out of recycled metals is an effort in constantly reminding them, “oh hey, I won this Olympic medal AND it’s also made out of recycled metals!” I’m not sure what kind of effect it’ll actually have on the medalists but it’s a good reminder, I think.