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Turning E-waste into Jewelry
Last updated: Sep 27, 2022
Summary
BaYou with Love, founded and run by designer, actress and environmentalist Nikki Reed, is a lifestyle brand focused on sustainable, ethical fashion and production within jewelry, apparel, home and beauty. Their fine jewelry using recycled gold, including gold recovered from discarded technology through their partnership with Dell. Through this partnership, they took recycled gold found in used electronics, and create new jewelry. "We all should be thinking “circular” in our approach to design. One industry’s “trash” can be another’s treasure."
Problem
- Only around 12.5% of electronics are responsibly recycled globally.
- In phones alone, Americans throw away more than $60 million in gold and/or silver every year.
- Huge amounts of gold and silvers disposed in landfill.
Solution
Taking gold from computers, recycle and create new jewelry. There are 800 times more gold in a tone of computer motherboard than in a tone of ore from the earth. Dell and their partners extract gold from old computer motherboards that is 99% more environmentally friendly than extracting gold from the earth.
Outcome
- Since 2012, Dell has recycled over 50 million pounds of materials.
- BaYou with Love jewelries make from upcycled gold from technology and sustainably sourced gemstones which avoid extracting gold from the earth and as a result protect land, water, society (e.g. prevent child labor in mining areas and conflicts among miners) and mitigate CO2 emissions.
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Key elements of the circular economy
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Date added: Jul 3, 2022
Last updated: Sep 27, 2022
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