Gold hidden in computers turns into jewelry with opals. The idea is from Dell and Nikki Reed ♦ ︎
“That computer is a jewel”. Sometimes you hear a phrase like that, usually by a technology enthusiast. Now, however, it can be interpreted literally. In Las Vegas, at the Ces, the consumer electronics fair, one of the largest groups of PCs, Dell, presented a collection of jewelry made from recycled gold from the motherboards of PCs. In fact, in the heart of computers, a tiny gold connection is often used, because metal is an excellent conductor of electricity and, therefore, of data. When you change a computer, on average every five to six years, this small amount of gold ends up in waste. The actress and activist Nikki Reed decided to reuse it thanks to Dell, who also announced that she wanted to use recycled gold for the motherboards of the next computers. The jewelry line is called Circular Collection and includes rings, earrings and twins with a circular shape. The 14 and 18 carat gold is used together with opals, obviously with ethically certified provenance.
The raw materials recoverable from electronic waste, including gold, platinum, silver, copper and palladium, have an estimated value of 55 billion dollars. But for now the recycling is documented only for 8.9 million tons of waste. Alessia Mongrando
