Sustainable shimmer? Brands from Pandora to Tiffany & Co. are switching to recycled gold and silver, while Boucheron and Pomellato are using upcycled materials

Aug 10 , 2024

Boucheron’s latest high jewellery collection incorporates unconventional materials including asbestos. Photos: Handout

The world’s largest jewellery brand, Pandora, announced that it will only use recycled gold and silver, and is partnering with Pamela Anderson and Precious Lee for its sustainable jewellery campaign

Boucheron has a capsule collection centred on Cofalit – a material produced by recycling a by-product of asbestos – while Pomellato is using an ancient Japanese technique to upcycle damaged stones

Famous for its hand-finished charm bracelets, fashion jeweller Pandora sells more than 100 million pieces in more than 100 countries annually. This makes the Danish chain the world’s biggest jewellery brand by products sold: a spectacular feat that renders even the most historic houses green with envy.

So when Pandora declared in January that it will now only use recycled gold and silver – in a bid to reduce its carbon footprint and address other environmental concerns related to mining – the announcement quickly became the talk of Place Vendôme.

Gold jewellery and charms from Pandora’s current Summer collection. The world’s biggest jewellery brand (by products sold) declared in January that it will only use recycled gold and silver going forward

Pandora has smashed its initial target, set in 2020, to limit its supply chain to recycled gold and silver by 2025. However, the journey to success hasn’t been without difficulty. The jeweller’s suppliers had to introduce new equipment and different manufacturing practices to ensure complete segregation of mined and recycled materials.

Without them, Pandora couldn’t guarantee the provenance of its metals nor meet the chain of custody standards set by the Responsible Jewellery Council, which promotes ethical social and environmental practices by inspecting the credentials of jewellery supply chains. For Pandora’s CEO, Alexander Lacik, these challenges are nothing in comparison to those facing our planet.

An earring from Boucheron’s Jack Ultime. The capsule collection is made from gold, diamonds and Cofalit, a black material derived from industrial waste

“Recycling can significantly reduce the climate footprint of the jewellery industry,” he said, estimating that the company’s shift to 100 per cent recycled gold and silver will slash its supply chain CO2 emissions by a quarter. This amounts to 58,000 tonnes annually, which according to the brand, “is similar to the emissions from the annual electricity use of 11,000 homes, or driving 6,000 cars around the world”.

How is this possible? Well, recycling requires less energy and fewer resources than mining. Recycling gold emits less than 1 per cent of the carbon emissions from mining gold, and recycling silver emits one third of the carbon emissions from mined silver.

Scarabeo di Pomellato is a capsule collection of 31 fine jewellery rings

According to Lacik, recycled metals don’t compromise the quality of Pandora’s pieces. “Precious metals can be recycled forever without any loss of quality,” he said. “Silver originally mined centuries ago is just as good as new.”

Pandora isn’t the only brand working with salvaged metals. Fine jeweller Lylie, and demi-fine jewellers Missoma and Monica Vinader, have ditched the mining of gold and silver in favour of their recycled counterparts.