press clippings

Bloomberg News, February 4, 2010 By Rob Delaney

Olympic medallists to get a load of junk

TORONTO - U.S. skier Julia Mancuso and Russian hockey player Alex Ovechkin may be wearing waste from recycled Sony Trinitrons around their necks if they reach the medals podium at the Winter Olympics in Vancouver.

The 2010 Olympic and Paralympic medals are the first containing metal salvaged from televisions, circuit boards, monitors and electronic waste. The so-called urban ore was supplied by Teck Resources Ltd., Canada's largest base-metals producer, which provided gold, silver and copper used to make the undulating, laser-etched prizes.

For Teck, based in the Olympic host city, supplying the recycled metals represents a publicity effort as well as a chance to show off what it says is a growing four-year-old business.

"Anyone going out of their way to take steps in sustain-ability is a big deal, even if it's just a small step like this one," Ms. Mancuso, 25, a giant-slalom gold medalist at the 2006 Turin Winter Games, said in an email. "It all goes toward something bigger; you never know what simple things will inspire."

The medals are produced by the Royal Canadian Mint in Ottawa, which bought metal from Teck valued at about US$1.24-million based on closing New York prices yesterday.

Each of the 1,014 medals to be awarded is unique, based on designs by local artists, says the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.

First-place winners get gold-plated medals that are 92.5% silver. The second-place prizes are also 92.5% silver, while the third-place bronze medals are mostly copper. The Olympic medals weigh about 500 to 556 grams, meaning the metal in the gold awards is valued at about US$537 based on yesterday's closing prices. The silvers are worth about US$300 and the bronzes about US$3.40.

All the medals have some e-waste materials from Teck's electronic recycling program in Trail, B.C., about 420 kilometres east of Vancouver. Teck mixed gold, silver and copper from the program with metals mined from the ground. The company said it couldn't provide the exact percentage of mined versus recycled material in the finished medals.

The salvaged metals include components from Trinitron televisions made by Tokyo-based Sony Corp. and sets manufactured in the 1960s by Zenith Electronics LLC of Lincolnshire, Ill., said Christa Ford, director of Teck's e-waste recycling program.

Pavilion computers sold by Palo Alto, Calif.-based Hewlett-Packard Co. are also among hundreds of products recycled.

Teck may process 15,000 tons of e-waste this year, up from 2,100 tons in 2006, when the program began, Ms. Ford said.

"It's a new direction for Teck to be mining what's often referred to as urban ore," Ms. Ford said. "We're trying to reuse what we already have."

Teck will add more appliances to the e-waste stream this year, including DVD players, and the company is testing zinc alkaline batteries and fluorescent bulbs, Ms. Ford said.

The recycling operation in Trail, near the U.S. border, "generates a positive revenue stream," said Teck spokeswoman Kate Best, declining to be more specific about the profitability.

Canada won't be the first Olympic host to give out awards made from scavenged material. Norway used stone quarried from the ski jump excavation site in Lillehammer to form the base of medals awarded during the 1994 Winter Games, said Mark Adams, an International Olympic Committee spokesman.

Teck shares climbed more than sixfold last year Toronto Stock Exchange trading, and as of Tuesday's close of $37.70 had a market value of $22.2-billion. Teck's third-quarter net income increased 44% to $609-million, the company said in October. Sales in the period gained 22% to $2.13-billion.

Teck is an Olympic sponsor that derives the largest share of its revenue from coal. The company said it wants to be associated with sustainable production in an industry with an environmental impact.

Teck's efforts to keep metal out of landfills may help the company counter publicity related to the spill of an acidic liquid containing 950 kilograms of lead into the Columbia River in 2008. Teck temporarily shut lead production at Trail afterward.

"Trail operations [have] completed a full systems assessment for the lead refinery and all recommendations have been implemented with the view to preventing similar incidents," Carol Vanelli Worosz, a Teck spokeswoman, said in an emailed response to questions.

"The connection between Teck and the Olympics isn't obvious, so tying Teck with recycled metals at the Olympics is very clever because it gives them a sustainability association," said David Dunne, professor of marketing at University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management.

Olympic-bound athletes greeted news of the e-waste medals with varying degrees of enthusiasm.

"I would be extremely proud to have a medal made of recycled metals," said U.S. speedskater Katherine Reutter, 21.

Mr. Ovechkin, 24, of the Washington Capitals and the second-leading scorer as of Tuesday in the National Hockey League, said the e-waste connection was "interesting."

"I had never heard about that," he said in Atlanta for a game against the Thrashers.

"You want to win, especially in the Olympics, so it doesn't matter what it's made of."