2020 Tokyo games committee likely to secure enough metals for medals

February 8, 2019

Tokyo--The organizing committee of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics said Friday that it is likely to secure enough recycled metals to create medals for the quadrennial games.

The committee started to collect metals from end-of-life mobile phones and small home appliances from across Japan in April 2017. The campaign is set to end at the end of March, the committee said.

As of the end of October last year, the committee had collected 28.4 kilograms of gold, 3,500 kilograms of silver and 2,700 kilograms of bronze.

The amount of bronze has already reached the volume needed to create medals.

As for gold, 93.7 of the target amount has been collected, while 85.4 pct of the target has been gathered for silver. Both metals are expected to reach their necessary amounts by the end of the campaign.

The collection efforts have brought in more than five million mobile phones.

"We started out with worries that the metals might not reach the required amounts. We're grateful that people made positive efforts," said Masaaki Komiya, vice director-general of the committee.

A total of more than 5,000 medals are needed for the Tokyo Games. The manufacturing of medals began in January. Jiji Press