An old, unused smartphone lying around the house just collecting dust might one day be a source of admiration, dangling proudly around an Olympic athlete's neck at a medal podium ceremony.
Hironao Ito, a sophomore at Waseda University, is hoping this idea alone will spark excitement among Japanese and give the country an excuse to ramp up efforts toward becoming a greener society ahead of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics.
Ito, 21, belongs to a university club known as Environment Rodrigues, a student-run body whose mission is to raise environmental awareness on campus.