a reference for jewellery in economy
maker ‘Old electronic appliances are considered a nuisance in households, but they are actually a treasure trove,’ said Renet Japan President Takeshi Kuroda, as he perused piles of dusty PC’s, printers and cellphones packed in cardboard boxes. ‘I want people to know that useless cellphones and PC’s can be turned into medals for the Tokyo Olympics’ he said.
material For the 2012 Olympic Games London used 9,6 kg gold, 1210 silver and 700 kg copper to produce the medallions which were handed out. During the year 2014 Japan could save 143 kg gold, 1566 kg silver and 112 kg copper from it’s electronic waste recycling. In fact, the land that lacks the natural resources own 16 % of the gold and 22% of the silver resources world wide due to the recycling of electronic waste. Collecting the artificial resource is also called urban mining.
world To mine the needed amount of precious metals, the Japanese government recognised, that a central e-waste collecting system needs to be developed.
jewellery perspective Seeing all this from the perspective of the jewellery, the medallion on one hand is an object that sheds light on an anthropocenic condition. The artificial layer of discarded devices are used as mines to replace missing natural resources. On the other hand the creation of such jewels opens the need for a larger change: a newly organised e-waste circulation and infrastructure needs to be developed in the country. As such, the Olympic games 2020 draws a new relation between the disciplines of architecture and jewellery.
