Tokyo unveils Olympic medals made from recycled cellphones

The Tokyo 2020 Olympic medals will be made from recycled materials from nearly 80,000 tons of discarded electronic devices. 

The Olympics announced the design Thursday, one year ahead of the summer games.

{mosads}Recycled materials have been used in Olympic designs in the past, most recently in the 2016 games held in Rio, but the newly announced Tokyo design is the largest scale donation effort taken on by a host country, according to the Olympic release. 

More than 90 percent of Japan’s local authorities participated in the effort, collecting about 6.2 million mobile phones and other devices including digital cameras, handheld games and laptops. 

The donations lead to 30.3 kilograms of gold, 4,100 kilograms of silver and 2,700 kilograms of bronze by the collection date of March 31. 

The design falls under the theme “Be better, together — for the planet and the people.” It’s in line with the Olympics’s sustainability initiative. 

The uniforms for the Olympic torch relay will be produced in part using recycled plastic bottles, and the victory ceremony podiums have been made using recycled household and marine plastic waste. The Japanese public contributed about 45 tons of household plastic to create the 100 podiums.