Tokyo 2020: Gold, Silver and Bronze medals from e-waste?
After the spectacular Tokyo 2020 teaser, Japan wants to use the Olympics for making a sustainability statement. Japanese organizers are planning to use recycled consumer electronics to make the gold, silver, and bronze Olympic medals. The organizers said enough copper, silver, and gold could be sourced from the country's "urban mine." Electronics companies are being asked to pitch ideas for e-waste collection programs.
The 'Summer Olympic Games' is an international multi-sport event conducted in every leap year by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). The 2020 Summer Olympics or Games or the XXXII Olympiad, are scheduled to be held between 24th July and 9th August 2020 in Tokyo. On 7th Sep'13, Tokyo won the IOC members' voting round in Buenos Aires to host the 2020 Olympics.
So far, nineteen countries have hosted the Summer Olympics. The United States (1904, 1932, 1984 and 1996) is the nation to host the event for the maximum number of times, which is followed by Great Britain (1908, 1948 and 2012).
In mid-2015, Tokyo 2020 Organizing Committee unveiled the Olympics logo featuring four geometric shapes; a black rectangle, one red circle (Japan's rising sun), silver and gold triangles. The shapes formed letters 'T' (for Tokyo), 'L', and 'r'; the symbolism was confusing. In Apr'16, a new logo was unveiled amid plagiarism accusations as the first logo looked similar to Studio Debie's Théâtre de Liège emblem.
Tokyo's new logo is a checkered ring designed by Japanese artist Asao Tokolo known for his black-and-white geometric works of art. It was one of the four shortlisted logos from 14,599 designs submitted to an open competition announced in 2015.
On 3rd Aug'16, the International Olympic Committee approved five games to be added to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. While baseball was reintroduced, karate, climbing, skateboarding and surfing are the other sports that have been added by the IOC to the list of 39 existing games in Tokyo. However, netball, snooker, and squash have not been given a place on the list.
At Rio Olympics' vibrant closing ceremony, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe dressed as Super Mario and invited everyone to Tokyo. Tokyo 2020 organizers said they were aiming to launch tech projects to wow the crowds and boost the economy. Japan wants to showcase high-tech robot guides, artificial meteorite showers, driverless taxis and multilingual translation smart-phone apps at the 2020 Olympics.
The teaser for Tokyo 2020 was focused on Japan's cultural contributions (manga history and video-game heritage). A bunch of anime and video-game characters was showcased, heightening people's expectations of seeing the characters come to life (Augmented Reality) at Tokyo's Olympic Opening Ceremony.
