The 2020 Olympic medals will be made from smartphones

Organizers of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics are hoping to source the gold, silver and bronze needed to make medals for the games from millions of discarded smartphones, reports The Digital Journal.

That’s because a staggering 16% of the world’s gold and over 22% of the planet’s silver currently resides inside Japanese electronics.

The initiative forms part of ongoing meetings between game’s organisers and government heads to pitch ideas for recycling schemes to help encourage citizens to donate.

“By raising public awareness, the amount of electronic waste that is collected and recycled could be increased”, said Takeshi Kuroda, President of appliance giant ReNet Japan Group.

“Recycling is already widespread in Japan for many products, including milk cartons and plastic bottle caps. We need a system that makes it easy for consumers to turn in used consumer electronics”.