The much awaited Tokyo Olympics 2020 is just a few days away and preparations have begun in full swing. The organisers are now putting up 'Cardboard Beds' in rooms of athletes for their night sleep and rest. The bed frames installed in the Athletes Village are made of cardboard. “Those beds can stand up to 200 kilograms,” Takashi Kitajima, the general manager of the Athletes Village, was quoted as saying by the Associated Press. Kitajima further added that a “wild celebration" such as an athlete bagging a gold could perhaps be bad news for the bed. “Of course, wood and cardboard would each break if you jumped on them,” he said. The idea behind such a contraption was to be easy on the environment and our planet. The single-bed cardboard frames would be recycled into paper after the conclusion of the games while the mattresses (not made of cardboard) will undergo recycling only to be turned into plastic products.
For the unversed, cardboard frame beds at the Games were introduced all the way back in January 2020 Rio Olympics silver medallist Paul Chelimo, took a light-heard jibe on the latest development, Chelimo tweeted saying that the beds were, in fact, aimed at avoiding intimacy among athletes. The organisers are planning to keep the showpiece event environment friendly. The medals for this year are made out of discarded electronic wastes including 6.2 million used mobile phones while the Olympic torch is made out of aluminium waste, a Reuters report from January 2020 stated. The event which is scheduled to start from 23rd has been already hit hard by multiple COVID-19 cases. Three athletes, two of them staying at the Olympic Village, have tested positive for COVID-19, the Games Organising Committee announced on Sunday. It is the first instance of athletes staying at the village catching the infection. Their identities have not been revealed by the organisers. The third infected athlete is staying at a designated Games hotel.