Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic organizers are urging people living in Japan to help make the medals for the games by donating their discarded smartphones for recycling.
The organizing committee announced Wednesday that it has teamed up with telecommunications giant NTT Docomo and the Japan Environmental Sanitation Center to launch a massive collection drive starting from April, and hopes to collect up to 8 tons of metal from obsolete electronic devices.
"Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic medals will be made out of people's thoughts and appreciation for avoiding waste," said three-time Olympic gold medal-winning gymnast Kohei Uchimura. "I think there is an important message in this for future generations."