When people think of recycling precious metals, they think of old phones and computers. But some of the richest sources are not electronic at all. Gujarat, with its jewellery hubs, chemical belts and plating units, has plenty of them.
Jewellery industry waste
Surat and Rajkot are among India’s best-known jewellery and diamond centres, and there are many workshops in Ahmedabad and Vadodara too. Every workshop loses a small amount of metal every day into:
- Floor sweeps and bench dust
- Polishing and buffing waste
- Rags, wipes and gloves
- Water and air filters
- Crucibles and melting residues
Each item looks worthless, but over months the gold and silver add up. Thermal reduction burns off the organic material and leaves a metal-rich ash, which is blended so its gold and silver content can be measured accurately. See our jewellery waste service.
Spent catalysts
The chemical and pharmaceutical plants around Vadodara, Bharuch, Ankleshwar and Dahej use catalysts to speed up reactions. Many contain platinum, palladium or rhodium. When a catalyst is spent, those metals are still there. These metals are rare and not renewable, so recovering them locally matters. See spent catalyst recovery.
Plating waste
Electroplating units and electronics makers produce plating solutions waste, plated rejects and off-cuts containing gold and silver. Solvent extraction recovers metal from surface-plated items. See plating & manufacturing waste.
Tips for getting the most value
- Collect consistently. Use dedicated bins for sweeps, rags and filters.
- Keep streams separate. Don’t mix gold-bearing jewellery waste with general trash.
- Keep it dry and sealed.
- Work with a recycler whose process can handle low-grade material. Our systems are engineered to work efficiently even at low volumes and low metal content.
Alchemy Recyclers recovers gold, silver, platinum, palladium, rhodium and copper from all of these waste streams at our plant in Vadodara. Contact us to discuss your material.
