Ethical Silver: where can i purchase it? how can i recycle it to produce more jewellery? I am an environmental scientist doing a collaborative dissertation on silversmithing practices. does anyone know where or who i can contact to obtain ethical silver for the production of jewellery- my work colleague has to make something. alternatively the method for recycling small amounts. thanks
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Silver can be recovered from a variety of sources, including photographic waste, electrical and electronics waste as well as old jewellery.

I guess to recycle old jewellery you could either clean/repair and sell as antique/pre-used (or turn into artworks) or smelt it down to make %26#039;new%26#039; silver ingots. You can buy small scales furnaces for this purpose. (Not sure of the carbon footprint though.)
http://www.wenesco.com/hitempfurn.htm?gc...

I imagine a small scale metalworks could also do this for you Also turn re-smelted ingots back into sheets and wire for jewellery making.

I guess you have to investigate the whole silver industry; how its produced, what its used in, how it can be recovered, how it can be reused and the cost economics of it. Some may not be feasible on a small scale. (Can the silver from silver plate be recovered for example?)

Good luck. 25% 1 Vote