Brilliant! Tokyo follows in Rio footsteps for preparing special medals

2020 Olympic medals to be made from 'recycled' mobiles

IMAGE: Virginia Thrasher of United States poses with the gold medal which she won in the women's 10m Air Rifle event at the 2016 Olympic Games, in Rio de Janeiro. Photograph: Jeremy Lee/Reuters

Organisers of Tokyo 2020 want their Games to be remembered for being nature-friendly, and keeping that in mind, the medals are going to be made from recycled mobile phones.

The move is not only aimed at promoting sustainability, but also at saving costs.

Olympic and Paralympic Games have traditionally always been about gold, silver and bronze, but with the new development, the Japanese public have been asked to donate unwanted mobile phones and other electronic items to help make 5,000 medals.

According to CNN, the organizers are expecting around eight tonnes of metal from collection boxes which will be placed in local offices and telecoms stores around the country from April.

Recycled materials have been used in previous Games to make Olympic medals, with 30% of the silver and bronze medals at last summer's Olympics in Rio made from recycled materials.