For the first time, Olympians will be wearing medals that contain gold, silver and copper recovered from old electronics. The metal supplier, Teck Resources, recycled household appliances, electronics and cables and
recovered metals from computer parts
and circuit boards through smelting. The 2010 Olympic medals are the largest and heaviest medals to date with e-waste material making up the following percentages in each one:
- Gold Medal: 1.52 percent recovered gold
- Silver Medal: 0.122 percent recovered silver
- Bronze Medal: 1.11 percent copper
I thought it was also interesting that the 2010 Olympic Medals are also the first non-flat medals. They are wavy to represent the waves of the ocean and mountain snow drifts.
There's a nice article on CNN about recycle metal for the Olympic medals and a short video on Discovery Channel Canada.AP Photo/Charlie Krupa
Tags: EWaste, Olympics, Recycling, Recycling Batteries, Reuse
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