Olympic Athletes competing in the 2020 Games in Tokyo will be sleeping on cardboard beds.
All 18,000 beds will have frames made completely of cardboard in the Olympic Village, which is off-limits to non-athletes.
Once the games are over, the frames will be recycled into paper products and the mattresses will be recycled into plastic products, as part of the Olympic Committee’s commitment to sustainability.
‘Those beds can stand up to 200 kilograms,’ explained Takashi Kitajima, the general manager of the Athletes Village, speaking to AFP through an interpreter.’
‘They are stronger than wooden beds.’
#Tokyo2020 to feature recyclable cardboard beds for Athletes! That’s the way to go 😊https://t.co/g9auluAqm9
— Prof Ben Voyer (@drbenvoyer) January 9, 2020
According to organizers, this is the first time that renewable materials have been used to create the beds and bedding in the Athlete’s Village. The beds align with the Tokyo 2020 sustainability concept, which is expressed with the tagline, ‘Be better together – for the planet and the people’.
The Olympic Village, which comprises 21 apartment towers should be completed in June ahead of the Olympics, which begins on 24 July 2020.
Image: AP Photo/Jae C. Hong
