2010 Olympic medals to contain used gadgets
Medalists at the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games will celebrate with circuit boards hanging from their necks.
That's right. Gold, silver, and bronze medals for the upcoming games will contain metal from recycled TVs, computers, and keyboards that might have otherwise ended up as e-waste. Vancouver metals giant Teck Resources is producing and supplying the medals along with the Royal Canadian Mint.
The 2010 medals are undulating rather than flat.
(Credit: Vancouver2010.com)To acquire the metal for the medals (with great mettle, no doubt), Teck is recovering materials from cathode ray tube glass, computer parts, and circuit boards through smelting. The process involves shredding, separating, and heating electronic components, then combining the byproducts with metals from other sources.
More than 1,000 medals are currently being produced for the 2010 games. But geekiness isn't the only thing that makes them distinct.
They feature contemporary Aboriginal artwork by Corrine Hunt, a Canadian designer of Komoyue and Tlingit heritage. Also, the medals are wavy rather than flat, a form inspired by the ocean waves, drifting snow, and mountainous landscapes found in the Games region and throughout Canada.
Leslie Katz, senior editor of CNET's Crave, covers gadgets, games, and most other digital distractions. As a co-host of the CNET News Daily Podcast, she sometimes tries to channel Terry Gross. E-mail Leslie. 
Like driving your Prius to the occasional political fundraiser in between flying your jet all over creation telling other people what sacrifices in their lifestyle you'd like to make.
Save for Michael Phelps and a few other household name even the fame of winning a gold medal isn't worth much. I was just reading a story the other day about a Olympic gold medalist who is about to lose her house to foreclosure.
I don't think there is anything wrong with people foregoing various things to win the Olympics, but don't think there is a big financial payday waiting for you.
The whole point here is that the medals contain reclaimed metal. Did you miss it?
Even if the gold was not reclaimed, the same proportions would still have been used to create the medals.
I find the metals to be quite attractive, quite the change from the rather bland archaic round disc design.
Considering the amount of reclaimed gold shown on one of our national news programs, I would suppose they have found more than the 2.05Kg of gold reported here, although they may not have used all the gold from the circuit board shipment they received from the recycling company.
One last thing the author did not mention is that the medals fit together rather like a puzzle. If you put the bronze, silver and gold medals together they will form a picture of the artwork used on them in it's entirety.
If you plan on even thinking of using gold as a filling then DO NOT!!!!!
The British were the worst at this kind of discrimination. For example the so-called Henley rules for engagement of 1878 allowed only:
"... any established boat or rowing club not containing mechanics or professionals; and must not have competed in any competition for either a stake, or money, or entrance fee, or with or against a professional for any prize; nor have ever taught, pursued, or assisted in the pursuit of athletic exercises of any kind as a means of livelihood, nor have ever been employed in or about boats, or in manual labour; nor be a mechanic, artisan, or labourer."
When the modern Olympics were founded, they were based on the British ideal of
the so-called "amateur sportsman" - someone who was rich enough to not need to work for a living.
BTW - Montreal just finished paying off their Olympics tab... from 1976...
Good thing they rounded out the Pickton boys in Vancouver, otherwise they'd have no hookers for the IOC members visiting Vancouver.
At a glance the site shows only mining operations and no recycling, so is this recycling of precious metals only done as part of the Olympic's PR for enviromental-sensitive groups ?
But also note, that precious metal reclaim is the norm, not something new. I work in a cleanroom environment, and every few months we send out metal shields in our evaporators to reclaim precious metals. Not because it's green, but because it makes economic sense.
The Olympics are about nothing if not symbolism, so highlighting the "green" aspects of the medals is a natural thing. As others pointed out, it's not like elemental gold and silver is somehow better when mined directly from the ground vs. reclaimed. I think the point here (although the article does not address it directly) is not that the metal is reclaimed but that it's reclaimed from electronics waste that might normally not be properly processed using new and developing techniques.
Of course there are going to be ironies and inconsistencies (such as, say, a bevy of professional athletes participating in the ultimate "amateur" event which will make profits for thousands of media outlets, using thousands of gallons of fuel to meet at a newly-built facility where they will highlight an earth-friendly message). But the medals here are not the enemy.
- by niko_osokin October 18, 2009 7:22 PM PDT
- I'm not diggin the undulations. I AM digging the recycling.
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