Is gold a sustainable material?

Gold mining

Gold mining is not a viable long-term solution for jewelry production. The mining methods still used today are highly polluting. If you look at a mining report, you'll see that to produce 20 grams of gold, you need 8 kg of cyanide. Its extraction produces up to 40 tonnes of mining waste and generates more than 520 kg of greenhouse gases. So how do you make recycled gold?

Towards a sustainable economy: recycled gold

However, today's gold is not only mined. Since its discovery over 6,000 years ago, only 2 % of the volume mined has disappeared. Gold is perfectly recyclable, and was certainly the first material to be recycled. Today, 1/3 of the world's jewellers use recycled gold in their creations. The main consumers of recycled gold are in Europe and North America.

This is not surprising, since jewelry consumption is around 3 times higher than the Asian average. As jewellers are the priority recyclers, more and more are choosing to use recycled gold jewelry.

Consumer choices: awareness and authenticity

These days, we're increasingly mindful of the life cycle of the products we buy. By consuming products made from sustainable materials, recycled gold jewelry is a way of contributing to the preservation of natural sources.

The jewelry industry has come a long way in recent years, as evidenced by the emergence of eco-designers and major brands with collections dedicated to promoting sustainable development or fair trade.

Façonnier's commitment: recycled gold

At Façonnier, we have chosen to use only recycled gold. The gold used for all our creations comes exclusively from waste from the jewelry market, the medical sector, and sometimes the electronics sector. For example, at Façonnier, on a tree of 23 jewels, there are more than 31 grams of gold lost at the end of the various stages of creation. This gold is then recycled for use in other jewelry.

We believe it's important to use sustainable materials in our jewelry, and we're committed to using only recycled gold.

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