You can definitely recycle jewelry and gemstones, though it’s not as simple as recycling everyday household items like newspapers or other paper. With paper, you just collect it from your home and place it in a bin for the recycling truck. Recycling jewelry is more complicated because you must consider factors such as sentimental and financial value, the recycling method, and where you recycle it

Nonetheless, there are plenty of good reasons to recycle your jewelry rather than to just discard it. Today’s blog takes a look at recycling, re-purposing, and reusing jewelry.

1. Recycling Precious Metals

Precious metals such as gold, silver, and platinum have a high market value and typically hold that value. In fact, precious metals tend to have a more stable market value than precious stones. To recycle jewelry, the metals can be melted down and made into a new piece of jewelry, or other items. If the jewelry is made from gold or silver, it’s even possible to have it melted down at the jeweler’s bench because gold and silver don’t have high melting temperatures. Although this does work best for simple, unadorned jewelry like wedding bands.

Precious metals such as platinum and palladium, on the other hand, have very high melting temperatures. So they require special melting and recasting equipment, making it impractical to do at the jeweler’s bench. However, there are other ways to recycle platinum jewelry such as reusing parts of the existing piece of jewelry in the new design. One popular recycling choice for older jewelry made with platinum is to reuse the shank from the old piece in the new piece.

It should be noted, that because of the time and the process required to recycle your “old gold” (or other precious metal), doing so doesn’t usually work out to be any less expensive than just using “new gold” for a jewelry piece. Most people will recycle the precious metals in an old piece of jewelry purely sentimental reasons, not for economic reasons. Reusing precious stones, however, is another story…

2. Recycling Jewelry with Gemstones

Extracting stones from an old design to use in a new design is a fairly uncomplicated process and often quite economical. It’s always a good idea to have your jewelry appraised before you recycle it. This way you’ll find out the value of the stones, which can better inform your decision about what to do with your piece. For many people, reusing the gemstones from an heirloom piece or a piece that has sentimental value has great appeal. It allows them to have a custom-made piece more suited to their tastes while also keeping elements of the jewelry piece with sentimental value close to heart.

3. Creating New Jewelry from Old – Reusing Your Old Jewelry

When you design a new piece of jewelry, you can work with the designer to create a piece that is based on your own tastes. CAD jewelry design is especially suited to this process because it allows for greater detail, complexity and options. For example, the piece can be designed to fit the gemstone specifications of your old piece exactly. CAD also makes it much easier to revise a design until you achieve the desired outcome. Our success story of crafting a new wedding ring with a clients original stone provides a more in-depth look at how CAD can be used to create new from old.

4. Why Recycle Jewelry?

• Preserve sentimental value

• Reduce waste and environmental impact

• Create a unique, custom-designed piece

• Reuse high-quality gemstones and metals

By recycling your jewelry, you’re not only protecting the planet but also investing in meaningful, custom jewelry that you’ll love to wear.

Start your journey today and create custom jewelry that turns old treasures into stunning new designs.