Old Metals Become New Medals

Every two years, thousands of gold, silver, and bronze medals are given out to the world's best athletes at the Olympic Games. For the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, the city's Olympic organizing committee is using a surprising source to obtain the metal needed to make these medals: mobile phones.

By the summer of 2020, Tokyo will need to produce five thousand medals for its Olympic and Paralympic Games. To meet this goal, Japan has launched a campaign encouraging its citizens to leave their old phones and other electronics at public offices and phone shops throughout the country. The key is that electronics have small amounts of valuable metals in them which can be extracted through a chemical process. Up to eight tons of recycled metal will be collected.

While this campaign will benefit the environment and reduce the cost of hosting the Games, these aren't its only benefits. For the Japanese people themselves, it offers a chance to become a unique part of Olympic history.

東京奧運將廢金屬變成獎牌
每兩年在奧運會上，會有數千個金、銀、銅牌頒給世界上最優秀的運動員。為了二○二○年的東京奧運，這個城市的奧運籌備委員會用令人想不到的來源來取得打造這些獎牌所需的金屬：手機。
二○二○年夏天之前，東京將需要為所主辦的奧運會和殘奧會製造五千面獎牌。為了達成這個目標，日本發起一項活動鼓勵國民在全國各地的公務機關和手機店留下他們的舊手機和其他電子產品。關鍵是電子產品內含有少量可以透過化學過程提煉出來的貴重金屬。將收集高達八噸的回收金屬。
儘管這項活動會造福環境和降低舉辦奧運的花費，但這些並不是唯一的好處。對日本民眾本身而言，它提供一個成為奧運史上獨特一員的機會。

2017/07/12(三)