The Vancouver 2010 Winter
Olympics is going green. Not only is the
Olympic committee pushing / practicing the three
R’s (Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle) using the bins provided at all Games venues; this year, when the winter Olympic champions
have the gold, silver and bronze medals placed around their necks, they will be
wearing old computer parts.
In an effort to cut
greenhouse emissions by 15%, Olympic organizers are using recycled materials to
help reach this overall goal. In past
games, the medals have been made of freshly mined ores. A Canadian based mining company responsible
for making the medals had developed a process to recapture metals from cathode
ray glass tubes, computer circuits, keyboards and other recyclable
e-waste. The process to recover precious
metals is said to include shredding, separating and heating the recyclable
materials. Other signs of the sustainability
of the Vancouver 2010 Games include solar panels and green roofs in the Olympic
villages as well as personal reusable water bottles at Games venues for the
first time.
Third place finishers will
receive a bronze medal with 1.11% recycled material. Second place finishers will receive a silver
medal with 0.12% recycled material. And
the Olympic champion in the event will receive a gold medal with 1.52% recycled
material.