Japan Plans to Make Olympic Medals Out of Electronic Waste

In 2020, the organizers of the Tokyo Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games intend to use precious metals from recycled electron wastes for the preparation of medals.

Japan's Nikkei company presented data on precious metals produced in 2014 by electronic waste recycling in Japan. It is reported that 143 kilograms of gold, 1566 kilograms of silver, and 1112 tons of copper were purchased from scattered electronics. 9,6 kilograms of gold, 1210 kilograms of silver, and 700 kg of copper were handed over to the London 2012 Olympic Games.

Many of the metals obtained in this way are used for the production of new electronic equipment. Therefore, the organizers are planning to involve partners who will help organize a large-scale waste collection and recycling campaign.

There are some precious metals in electronic waste. For example, salt acid solution and hydrogen peroxide can be used for gold extraction, but first you need to disassemble the device and extract the necessary details. Usually, although manual labor is used for this purpose, some companies have automated this process. For example, in 2016, Apple introduced a special Liam robot designed to disassemble the iPhone.

 golos.ua