In a small studio in Cape Town, South Africa, Ashley Heather with her passions of sustainability and metal craft, creates jewellery made from recycled e-waste gold and silver.
According to Heather, an estimated 83 percent of all electronic products are discarded in landfills or incinerators and roughly $60 million worth of silver and gold found in cell phones are dumped every year in the United States alone.
“We strive to create pieces that endure; jewellery that stands in opposition to the fast pace and planned obsolescence of technology,” said Heather. “We believe that while some metal mining may always be necessary, ultimately our most important extraction operations should be taking place in scrap yards and recycling centres rather than sensitive ecological areas and ancestral lands.”
Extracting gold and silver from circuit boards destined for the landfill and purifying it at a refinery, the precious metals are then sent to the studio to be “transformed into the next stage of their life cycle”. The remaining circuit boards are run through a shredder and burned in a furnace. All other e-waste components are recycled.
“Jewellery uses all four of the natural elements in its production,” explained Heather. “The metals themselves are part of the structure of the earth, air and fire melt and anneal and water quenches. There is something primordial in working so closely with the elements, something grounding.”
“Our hope is to return to a view of jewellery as an heirloom worthy of passing down; not just of the object itself but also of a more just world for future generations to wear it”, added Heather.
