Is Switzerland ready for Olympic gold in 2038?

From 26 July to 11 August 2024, 10,500 athletes will compete in 329 events in Paris to fulfil their biggest dream: winning an Olympic medal. Whereas in Tokyo these were made of 100% electronic waste, in Paris each medal will be adorned with a piece of scrap iron from the Eiffel Tower. Assuming the Winter Olympics are held in Switzerland in 2038, would a Swiss medal made from 100% e-waste be realistic or would we have to resort to a piece of rock from the Gotthard massif?

Tokyo 2021 – medals made from electronic waste 

78,985 tonnes of mobile phones, laptops, cameras and games consoles were collected by the Japanese between 2017 and 2019 to make 5,00o medals for the 2021 Summer Olympics. This resulted in 32 kg of pure gold, 3,500 kg of pure silver and 2,200 kg of pure copper. A statement that shows that the topic of sustainability has long since reached sport and is spurring the designers of the medals on to top creative performances.

Paris 2024 – Upgrading 91.5 kg of scrap iron from the Eiffel Tower

For the Olympic medals in Paris, the French opted for a special kind of ‘recycling’: an 18-gram piece of scrap iron from France's most famous landmark - the Eiffel Tower - adorns the centre of each individual medal. To do this, the designers freed around 100 kilograms of iron from rust and dirt that had to be removed from the original structure for safety reasons during renovation work on the 325-metre-high landmark in the 20th century. From this, a piece of iron was cut into the geometric shape of France - the hexagon - for each of the more than 5,000 gold, silver and bronze medals. 

2038 Olympics – In the land of the recycling world champion

It is still uncertain whether Switzerland will be chosen as the venue for the 2038 Winter Olympics. But the incentive would be great to produce the gold, silver and bronze medals from 100% e-waste, just like Japan. The conditions for this could not be better: The Swiss already dispose of their defective electrical appliances in an exemplary manner: on average, 16 kg per capita are recycled each year. More than almost anywhere else. This is made possible by a well-established network consisting of over 1,200 specialist retailers, manufacturers and importers as well as 750 collection centres and 16 recycling companies, which have long been among the international leaders thanks to constant innovation.

Collected precious metal is enough for 400 pure silver and gold medals 

Over the past 33 years, a total of 1,452,110 tonnes of electrical appliances have been recycled thanks to this sophisticated collection and disposal system. From this, 703,778 tonnes of iron, 51,982 tonnes of copper, 9,012 tonnes of zinc, 198.5 kilograms of silver and 200.2 kilograms of gold were recovered. The collected iron alone was used to build 96 new Eiffel Towers and the copper and zinc were used to make 100,000 bronze medals for the Olympics. With an average weight of 500g per medal, the silver and gold recycled so far would also be enough for 400 pure silver and 400 pure gold medals. The question remains as to how many medals would have to be produced for the Winter Games. A look at the medal table from the last Winter Olympics in Beijing shows that a total of 109 silver and gold medals and 110 bronze medals were awarded in 2022. At the Paralympics, there were 78 gold, silver and bronze medals each . However, while the silver and bronze medals live up to their names, Olympic gold medals only have to consist of 6g of pure gold. The rest - at least 92.5 per cent - consists of silver. The IOC stipulates this.

If not the Olympics, then world champion 

If the Swiss remain as keen collectors over the next 14 years as they have been so far, there is a good chance that the demand for recycled copper, zinc, silver and gold for possible Olympic medals in 2038 can be met and Swiss designers will not have to switch to rock from the Gotthard massif. In any case, there will be no shortage of e-waste. Only recently, a new record of 62 billion kilograms of e-waste was measured worldwide. This is despite the fact that electronic devices are getting smaller and smaller. According to the Global E-Waste Monitor 2024, a particularly large amount of e-waste is generated in European countries with a high level of prosperity. This includes Switzerland. So let's take the Olympics as an incentive to maintain our leading position in eRecycling and return all electrical appliances that we no longer need to the cycle. And if the Olympic bid fails despite all our efforts, we will at least defend our title as world champion in eRecycling.