Gold waste from the Royal Mint has been turned into luxury jewellery which will be on show at Paris Fashion Week.
The gold was recovered from printed circuit boards and crafted into bespoke pieces for fashion designed Stella McCartney, in partnership with The Royal Mint’s jewellery brand 886.
Part of the collection was also made from recovered silver found in discarded X-ray films.
Expert jewellers and a reskilled former coin maker created more than 100 pieces ranging from jewellery to individual garment clasps using traditional hand crafting and bench making skills, the Royal Mint said.
Every year, millions of tonnes of electronic waste is thrown away, but the UK’s official coin producer, based in Llantrisant, Rhondda Cynon Taf, has been using special technology to extract metals including gold and silver.
It can process up to 4,000 tonnes of printed circuit boards from e-waste a year in its precious metals recovery factory.
Recovered gold and silver is already being used across the The Royal Mint’s luxury jewellery collection 886.
