After a two-year-long design competition, the 2010 Winter Olympic medals were chosen last October. But design isn't the only cool part. Weighing in at a record 500-576 grams, the medals are made from recycled electronics.
Teck Resources Ltd., a Vancouver-based diversified metals company and the Royal Canadian Mint have collaborated to ensure the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic medals contain recovered metal from electronic waste.
Canadian Aboriginal designer and artist Corinne Hunt, along with designers from the Canadian Mint, Teck and VANOC, collaborated on the project resulting in some of the heaviest medals in Olympic and Paralympic history.
After shredding, separating and heating end-of-life electronic components, the byproducts are combined with other metals to create the Olympic gold, silver and bronze medals. Each medal was hand-cropped, ensuring no two are alike, which is a first in Games history.
Teck Resources As an integrated non-ferrous metal producer, positioned to provide recycling solutions for metal-bearing manufacturing scraps and residues and post-consumer scrap materials. A more recent initiative has been recycling of end-of-life-electronic (EOLE) equipment, also known as e-waste. Teck's Electronics Recycling Process, in consultation with the BC Ministry of the Environment, has been tested and proven to meet the exacting environmental standards needed for the responsible processing of e-waste.
"Our employees worldwide are honored to supply the metals for the medals that will be cherished by the world's best winter athletes in 2010," said Teck's President and CEO Don Lindsay. "We're also excited that these medals will contain recycled metal recovered from end-of-life electronics, consistent with the sustainability philosophy of the Olympic and Paralympic Games."