The 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver will feature an Olympic medal first. Not only will every single medal handed out at the Olympics be different, but they also will be made of recycled electronic waste or e-waste. The 2010 Winter Olympics will be one of the first to take on a sustainability and conservation initiatives philosophy and correlate it with the games. In part of doing this Vancouver’s metal industry leader, Teck Resources is manufacturing all of the Olympic medals out of recycled metals recovered from old electronics. This is a great for our mother earth, as e-waste continues to be a growing concern for our environment.
Teck Resources is acquiring the metal materials from the smelting of various old electronics. Whether it be from cathode raytube glass, computer parts, or circuit boards each medal will be made up from electrical parts. The process involves the shredding, separating, and heating the electrical parts, then combining the byproducts with metals from other sources. As of now Teck resources is producing more than 1,000 medals for the 2010 games.
