The athletes competing in the 2020 Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo will be sleeping on cardboard.
The Olympic Village, which accommodates all of the athletes competing in the games and is off-limits to non-athletes, will have 18,000 beds with frames made completely of cardboard.
Following the games, the cardboard will be recycled into paper products, The Associated Press said, and the mattresses, which are not made of cardboard, will be recycled into plastic products.
These beds align with the Tokyo 2020 Games’ sustainability concept of, “Be better, together – For the planet and the people.”
The Tokyo 2020 Games set five main sustainability themes to follow while preparing, organizing and operating the games that include climate change and resource management, according to its website.
Tokyo 2020, along with the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, the Government of Japan and other delivery partners are aiming for zero waste.
The organisers of Tokyo 2020 also made a deal with four condom companies in order to hand out 160,000 condoms for the athletes in the village.
“The distribution of condoms is not for use at the athletes’ village, but to have athletes take them back to their home countries to raise awareness (of HIV and AIDS),” organisers had told Reuters.
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