Pandora achieves target of exclusively using recycled gold and silver

Pandora, renowned for its fan-favourite silver charm bracelets, has achieved its target to only use recycled silver and gold in all of its jewellery manufacturing. By using recycled instead of newly mined metals, the retailer will avoid producing 58,000 tons of CO2 every year.

As mining requires more energy and resources than recycling, this shift reduces significant greenhouse gas emissions. The carbon footprint of recycled silver is one-third compared to mined silver, while the recycling of gold emits less than 1% of the carbon emissions from mining new gold.

Allowing time for the depletion of the existing inventory, Pandora expects that it will craft all new jewellery with 100% recycled silver and gold from the second half of 2024. This is a small jump from its previous target, which saw the company achieve 97% of the metals recycled in 2023.

Alexander Lacik, CEO at 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 made a tarted to source 100% recycled silver and gold by 2025, however, the company has reached this milestone earlier than expected thanks to a strong commitment from its suppliers.

Pandora's suppliers have switched 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 introduced new processes and equipment to ensure the complete segregation of mined and recycled metals across the entire supply chain including sorting, melting and manufacturing.