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from the better-than-in-the-landfill dept.
Tokyo Olympic organisers on Wednesday called on the Japanese public to donate old smartphones and other old electronic devices to help make medals for the 2020 Games.
In a push to give the Olympics an environmentally friendly hue, Tokyo's organising committee is aiming to collect eight tonnes of gold, silver and bronze at recycling bins across Japan from April, officials said, to make 5,000 Olympic and Paralympic medals.
Tokyo 2020 said e-waste such as digital cameras, laptops and games units can also be donated at collection boxes in more than 2,000 stores of mobile phone giant and Olympic sponsor NTT Docomo.
Recycled metals have been used in previous years to make Olympic medals, including in Rio last year where the silver and bronze medals were 30 percent made from recycled materials.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Dunbal on Friday February 03 2017, @12:02AM
I love corporate charity drives. YOU do the work, and THEY get the credit. Like when you're at the supermarket check out and they ask you if you want to donate a dollar to "flavor of the month". You get the privilege of paying a dollar (only about $0.20 of which will actually get anywhere near a possible beneficiary), they get to say "Megamarkets gave $10,000,000 to flavor of the month!", and take a healthy tax deduction to boot!
(Score: 2) by kazzie on Friday February 03 2017, @05:37AM
Despite what you say, I find the idea that members of the public will have donated a small portion of each event winner's medal to be somewhat touching. I think this'll make them a bit more special to the winners.
It's certainly more interesting than just doing a straight fundraising drive.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 03 2017, @07:07AM
Maybe. But death of the Olympics as it currently is would be a much better deal.