Many in the jewelry industry believe that the term "recycled gold" is used to greenwash consumers into believing that they're using something ethical. The Jewelers Vigilance Committee has asked the Federal Trade commission to ban the word "recycled" as it pertains to marketing gold jewelry due to this rampant misunderstanding. "Recycled" and "reclaimed gold" is confusing verbiage for customers who don't understand the gold market. Greenwashing happens when an organization spends more effort marketing themselves as sustainable than they spend actually minimizing their affect on the environment. A panel at a recent Gold and Diamond conference agreed that jewelry designers are using the term "recycled gold" to oversell their product's true environmental impact.
The "recycled" halo erases any honesty about gold's origin and grants jewelry designers the perceived absence of accountability. "Recycled" gold is the still the same gold that caused harm to people and the environment on its way to our profits. Heating it up to a melting point doesn't change where it came from and how it got into our businesses. The word "recycled" assumes that it's a post-consumer product when any refiner can also include laundered, illegal gold and label it all as "recycled" once it's been melted. Much of what's called "recycled" gold is not old jewelry but in fact tailings from the mass-produced new jewelry market. The practice of recasting 100% customer gold isn't a pure process, either. Most of the time, some "fresh" gold grain must be added to the alloy to maintain karat pureness but more importantly, it does nothing to address the problem of conflict gold.
It helps to think of gold as a monetary instrument instead of trash when we consider the effects of reusing it. Recycling trash helps to slow the demand for new materials where as reusing dollars, stimulates the market. The same is true for gold. Reusing gold allows it to be more accessible and in demand.
"Recycled gold" has zero impact on gold mining because unlike plastic or paper, gold is not trash. This is where the term "recycled" get murky. There are no landfills full of gold, the beaches aren't littered with gold, there is no island of gold floating in the ocean threatening our sea life. Gold has always been reused since the beginning of gold and reusing gold has no affect on the demand for new gold. The demand for gold continues to grow and no amount of gold being reused will ever change that. Promoting "recycled gold" gives buyers the impression that they're doing something good for the planet when it's actually doing the opposite by fueling the gold market as well as putting millions of small scale miners at risk of losing their livelihoods and protection for their communities. Where's the sustainability in that? How does that give back to the planet and people that provide our jewelry?
This topic is complicated and I encourage you to do your own research. I referred to the articles below and hope that you'll be inspired to take a closer look at your supply chain.
Photo credit to Reflective Jewelry. Their article, '"Eco" Recycled Gold is a Greenwash BS Lie' is linked below.
https://www.jckonline.com/editorial-article/recycled-gold-not-sustainable/
https://www.jckonline.com/editorial-article/groups-ftc-ban-term-sustainable/
https://failjewelry.com/blogs/forge/is-recycled-gold-ethical
https://ethicalmetalsmiths.org/blog/can-recycled-gold-be-an-ethical-gold-source-at-all