Tokyo 2020; The Podium Project

Tokyo, 11 June 2019 – The Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (Tokyo 2020) today called on the Japanese people to provide household plastic waste, aiming to recycle this to produce the podium that will be used during award ceremonies for all events at the Tokyo 2020 Games. From June 13, collection boxes for discarded plastic will be provided in more than 2,000 retail outlets of AEON, a major Japanese retail chain. AEON will forward the plastics to Procter & Gamble, the global consumer goods company, who were today appointed as a Tokyo 2020 partner company. Procter & Gamble has advanced recycle technology and has been a long-term partner of the Olympic movement. The company will then manufacture podiums with the plastic and plastic waste collected from the ocean. Tokyo 2020 aims to collect as much as 45 tons of plastic. The collection will end when sufficient plastic has been collected to manufacture the podium.

This project highlights Tokyo 2020’s commitment to engage the whole Japanese nation in the build-up to the Games and to offer everyone an opportunity to play a role in their preparation. It will also contribute to the achievement of key UN Sustainable Development Goals, including “Responsible Consumption and Production”, “Underwater Life” and “Partnerships for the Goals”.

Tokyo 2020 established the sustainability concept of the Games as “Be better, together – for the planet and the people”, and is running numerous sustainability projects under this banner. Olympic and Paralympic medals will be manufactured from precious metals recovered from used consumer electronic appliances such as mobile phones—so-called “urban mines”—donated by people across Japan. Operation BATON is a project involving the construction of the Village Plaza at the Athletes’ Village using timber donated from regions all over the country; the timber will be returned to local authorities for re-use after the Games. The recycling of discarded plastic and marine plastic waste announced today constitute the latest project to be operated under the Tokyo 2020 sustainability banner.