If this were to happen, the next Olympic will champion sustainability and recycling which could make the twin practices ever more prevalent.

If you have happened to come across Japan’s teaser for the next 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, you must have realised that they are planning to lean pretty hard on the country’s pop-culture icons. Luckily, Japan hasn’t stopped at just that, in the next Olympics, Japan wants to make a statement about sustainability too.

According to a report from Nikkei, the organisers of the next Summer Olympics are perusing over whether they should use recycled electronics to forge the gold, silver and bronze medals for the next games.

Their idea is simple and yet brilliant: instead of asking mining companies to donate precious metal for the medals, the organisers are thinking of sourcing these metals from Japan’s “urban mine.”

As simple and brilliant as this might be, there is however a problem: although Japan produces mountain loads of electronic junk every year, it is recycled to produce yet more electronics. There may be enough e-waste to produce medals for the Olympic prizes.

To get over this hurdle, Japan’s Olympic planning committee has requested companies to pitch ideas for electronic recycling collection programs.

Japan hopes that by enabling its citizens to participate in the games, the country will be able to come up with a system to frame a better collection system for electronics waste.