Pandora shifting to recycled silver and gold for all jewellery

Pandora, the world’s largest jewellery brand, is shifting its precious metals supply to only source recycled silver and gold for all its jewellery.

In a statement, Pandora said using recycled materials instead of newly mined silver and gold will mean that the jewellery company will avoid 58,000 tons of CO2 every year.

The shift means it will avoid significant greenhouse gas emissions, as mining requires more energy and resources than recycling. The carbon footprint of recycled silver is one-third compared to mined silver, while the recycling of gold emits less than 1 percent of the carbon emissions from mining new gold.

Alexander Lacik, chief executive of Pandora, said: “Precious metals can be recycled forever without any loss of quality. Silver originally mined centuries ago is just as good as new, and improved recycling can significantly reduce the climate footprint of the jewellery industry.”

In 2020, Pandora set a target to source 100 percent recycled silver and gold by 2025, and the Danish jewellery brand will reach this milestone earlier than expected by the end of 2023, which it states is due to a “strong commitment” from its suppliers.

All of Pandora’s suppliers have had to switch their operations to only source materials that are certified recycled according to the Responsible Jewellery Council Chain of Custody, one of the strictest standards in the industry.

For many, this has meant introducing new processes and equipment to ensure complete segregation of mined and recycled metals across the entire supply chain, including sorting, melting, and manufacturing.

Currently, Pandora states silver and gold are the most used precious metals in its jewellery. Allowing time for the depletion of the existing inventory of metals, it expects that it will craft all new jewellery with 100 percent recycled silver and gold from the second half of 2024. In 2023, 97 percent of the silver and gold sourced for Pandora's jewellery was recycled.