Happy Thought for 9 August 2024

Have a Happy Thought:

Last week we talked about the country uniforms for this year’s Summer Olympics. As the competitions draw to a close, this week let’s look at the medals that the athletes are being given.


You may have noticed that the medals look a little bit different from previous years, with a big grey hexagon in the middle. This is actually iron, a metal that normally does not feature amongst the gold, silver and bronze. This iron comes from a special source – it is scrap iron from the Eiffel Tower! It is a mixture of bits left over during the original construction, as well as pieces that have been removed (and replaced, don’t worry) from the tower during various maintenance and renovations. The Monnaie de Paris, which is the national Mint (i.e. the place that literally makes physical money) crafted the iron scraps along with the gold, silver and bronze, into these beautiful medals.

Image: https://www.compoundchem.com/2024/07/30/paris2024medals/

 

This isn’t the first time that materials are being recycled into Olympic medals though… at the last summer games – the 2020 Tokyo Olympics that took place in 2021 – medals were crafted primarily out of precious metals recycled from e-waste. Organisers had to collect nearly 80,000 tonnes of e-waste from around Japan and around the world in order to get enough gold, silver and bronze.

Image: Summer Olympic medals for 2020 Tokyo games. https://olympics.com/en/news/designs-of-tokyo-2020-s-recycled-medals-unveiled

 

What an amazing way for both of these countries to follow Brazil’s footsteps in turning waste into treasure. Bring on the circular economy! (Which reminds me of this PSA: look up right-to-repair initiatives in your local area or country, and tell your elected officials to support them! Info for NZ. Info for the USA.)

Image: https://www.europarl.europa.eu/topics/en/article/20151201STO05603/circular-economy-definition-importance-and-benefits

 

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