Japan is exploring the feasibility of forging the Olympic 2020 medals using precious metals salvaged¹ from electronic waste.

日本正在探索使用电子垃圾中回收利用的贵金属来制造2020年东京奥运会的奖牌。

Members of Japan's Olympic organising committee tabled the idea to government officials and companies earlier this year, local media reports said.

当地媒体报道，日本奥林匹克组织委员会的成员们在今年早些时候将此想法正式提交给了政府官员和相关公司。

Olympic host cities have traditionally obtained the metal from mining firms.

奥林匹克主办城市向来是从矿产公司购入金属。

But Japan, which lacks its own mineral resources, is keen to take the theme of a sustainable future a step further.

但是日本作为一个矿产资源缺乏的国家，致力于更深入地贯彻可持续未来的主题。

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has developed strict criteria² for the world's greatest sporting event, and this extends to how the medals should be produced.

国际奥委会（IOC）为奥运会制定了严苛的标准，其中涵盖了如何制作奖牌。

The Rio Olympics, for example, used gold that was extracted without the use of mercury and a third of the silver and bronze used came from recycled sources.

例如，里约奥运会的金牌就是在无水银的情况下提炼而得，三分之一的银和铜来自可回收材料。

How does e-waste recycling work?

如何回收电子垃圾？

Discarded consumer electronics such as smartphones and tablets contain small amounts of precious and rare earth metals, including platinum³, palladium, gold, silver, lithium, cobalt and nickel.

在废弃的消费性电子产品中，如智能手机和平板电脑都含有少量的贵金属和稀有金属，其中包括铂金、钯、金、银、锂、钴和镍。

Scrap⁴ cars and home appliances such as fridges and air conditioners also contain these rarer metals, along with base metals, including iron, copper⁵, lead and zinc⁶.

废弃汽车和家用电器如冰箱和空调也含有此类稀有金属，此外还有基本金属如铁、铜、铅和锌。

Recycling or refining companies either collect or purchase tons of this e-waste and industrial scraps⁷. They then use chemical processes to separate the various metals.

回收公司、精炼公司收集或购买上吨的电子垃圾和工业废料。然后利用化学反应分离不同的金属。

Much of this work takes place in developing countries such as China, India and Indonesia.

这种工作大多在发展中国家如中国、印度和印度尼西亚完成。

Does Japan have enough for 2020?

日本有足够的电子垃圾来生产2020年的所有奖牌么？

Japan has one of the highest recycling rates in Asia, according to OECD data. However, this mainly applies to plastic, paper and glass.

经济合作与发展组织（OECD）的数据显示，亚洲拥有最高回收率之一的国家就是日本。然而，他们回收的主要是塑料、纸张和玻璃。

About 650,000 tonnes of small electronics and home appliances are discarded in Japan every year, the Nikkei newspaper said. However, it is estimated that less than 100,000 tonnes is collected for recycling.

日经新闻称每年日本有约65万吨的小型电子设备和家用电器被丢弃。然而，其中回收再利用的预计不到10万吨。

So for the 2020 Games, Japan will probably have to ask individual countries or companies to contribute towards the recycled metal collection effort.

所以为了2020年的奥运会，日本可能需要请求其他国家或公司共同帮助参与回收金属。

How much metal is needed?

需要多少金属？

The amount of metal needed will depend on the size and number of medals, since each year, they seem to get bigger and heavier.

所需的金属数量取决于奖牌的大小和数量。每一年奖牌都在变得越来越大，越来越重。

Five new sports have also been added to the Tokyo 2020 competition, including baseball, karate⁸, skateboarding, sport climbing and surfing.

2020年奥运会新加了五项运动，分别是棒球、空手道、滑板、运动攀岩和冲浪。

The 2016 Rio Olympics had the largest medals of any games, weighing in at 500g each and 1cm thick in the middle.

2016里约奥运会的奖牌大小是有史以来最大的，重500克，中间厚1厘米。

The Brazilian Mint produced 5,130 medals in total, up from the 4,700 made by London's Royal Mint for the 2012 Games.

巴西铸币局总共制造了5130枚奖牌，超过了伦敦皇家铸币局为2012年奥运会制造的4700枚奖牌。

How much will it cost?

花费多少？

It may end up being cheaper using recycled metals than buying it on the spot market.

使用回收的奖牌会比在现货市场上买便宜。

A little-known fact is that the gold medals are mostly made out of sterling⁹ silver and the bronze metals are mostly made out of copper.

一个鲜有人知的事实是金牌大多是由标准纯银制成，铜牌则大多由青铜制成。

Isn't that rather sneaky?

这是不是有点“卑鄙”？

The IOC minimum requirement for a gold medal is 6g of the pure yellow metal.

国际奥委会对金牌的要求是至少要有6克的金。

If the medals were made of pure gold, the overall cost would run into tens of millions of dollars.

如果奖牌是纯金的，那么总花费将达到几千万美元。

Gold is currently about 70 times more expensive than silver. But some market experts think that may change by 2020.

现在金的价格比银贵70倍。但是一些市场专家认为到2020年形势会有所变化。

Global silver reserves continue to shrink as demand is exceeding supply and we mine only 11oz of silver for each ounce of gold, said Gregor Gregersen, the founder¹⁰ of Silver Bullion¹¹ in Singapore.

全球银储存量在逐渐减少，供不应求。新加坡Silver Bullion的创立者格雷格尔·格雷格森说，我们每挖出一盎司的金，只能挖出十一盎司的银。