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They call it the circular economy. It is the process by which each object manages to obtain a second life. It is the transformation of what we want or need to get rid of. In the contemporary world, devoted to crazy and unscrupulous consumption, living according to these patterns is necessary. Especially because of the depletion of resources. Each of us, in our own small way, can do our part. However, the great ones must lead by example and sport is certainly an effective means. Like the Tokyo 2020 Olympics where the precious metals with which to manufacture medals for athletes were obtained from old smartphones and more generally waste from electrical and electronic equipment.

It is a model of production and consumption that involves sharing, lending, reusing, repairing, reconditioning and recycling existing materials and products for as long as possible. This extends the life cycle of products, helping to reduce waste to a minimum. Once the product has finished its function, the materials of which it is composed are in fact reintroduced, where possible, into the economic cycle. In this way, they can be continuously reused within the production cycle, generating further value.

WEEE. An acronym that stands for waste from electrical and electronic equipment. They are real mines from which to extract precious metals such as gold, silver, bronze, palladium, cobalt. Very often they end up in the so-called black bag because not everyone knows that if recycled correctly they can be exploited even when they reach the “end of life”. Yet the recycling of these objects is an opportunity that our country is not yet able to exploit. Not only do there not exist in many regions of Italy virtuous collection systems but once collected they are not enhanced with the extraction of precious metals and rare earths in our territory. In short, we are not able to create economic value and job opportunities.
“Our treatment plants – says Giorgio Arienti, General Manager of Erion Compliance Organization – they know how to recycle raw materials present in large quantities very well, therefore iron, aluminum, copper and plastic. On the other hand, they do not know how to recycle raw materials present in infinitesimal quantities and which have a significant value from an economic point of view but also from a strategic one. Because? Very sophisticated systems are needed that cost and require very high investments and that cannot be done as long as we harvest very little. It is a vicious circle because by collecting little, no Italian entrepreneur has felt like investing substantially in these plants. So it happens that the first-level plants remove the electronic boards and send them to treatment plants abroad in Belgium and Germany. So we make the effort to separate but then the benefit from the point of view of recycling these materials is not in Italy but is somewhere elsee”.

Medals are the symbol of excellence. When you think of recycling, on the other hand, you have the idea of objects of little value, second choice. What if the medals were recycled? The organizers of the Olympics made these medals by recycling 78,985 tons of electronic waste. Among these, there are 6.2 million smartphones. This is where the 30.3 kilos of gold, the 3,500 kilos of silver and the 2,200 kilos of bronze used for the medals come from. To collect all these materials, the organizers launched the “
Tokyo 2020 Medal Project
“, which collected electronic material. Thanks to the collaboration with all Japanese prefectures and also with NTT Docomo, the main Japanese telephone operator. The design of the medals, born from the pencil of Junichi Kawanishi, director of the Japan Sign Design Association and the Osaka Design Society, is by no means recycled. They chose it after a selection from 399 projects by professionals in the sector. On one side you can see the winged Nike of ancient Greece, a universal symbol of victory. On the other hand, the symbol of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, with circular shapes that symbolize the energy of the athletes and those who support them