Danish jeweller Pandora has fully transitioned to using 100 per cent recycled silver and gold to manufacture its jewellery, thereby cutting its carbon dioxide emissions by 58,000 tonnes per year.

This means that all new jewellery produced by Pandora is in recycled silver and gold - metals that can be recycled “forever without any loss of quality,” according to Pandora. The first of these products will appear in stores by early 2025.

“Silver and gold are our most important raw materials, and by moving to 100 per cent recycled metal, we reduce our climate impact significantly without compromising on quality or craftsmanship. This achievement is unparallelled in the industry and a major step towards a more circular business model,” said Alexander Lacik, president and CEO of Pandora.

The company said it sells more than 100 million pieces of jewellery annually, and the shift means a substantial reduction in greenhouse gas emissions since 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 produces less than 1 per cent of carbon emissions from mining new gold, added Pandora. 

“To put this into further context, if all silver and gold used by the entire jewellery industry came from recycled sources, it would avoid more than 53 million tonnes of CO2. This is similar to the annual carbon footprint of New York City,” the jeweller noted.

Pandora stopped sourcing newly mined silver and gold in December 2023 and has since worked to deplete its non-recycled inventory. In addition, it only uses lab-grown diamonds and other man-made stones such as cubic zirconia in its jewellery collections.