SCS Recycled — The Recycled-Metal Certification for Precious Metals in Jewellery
SCS Recycled — The Recycled-Metal Certification for Precious Metals in Jewellery
An SCS Global mark verifying post-consumer or post-industrial recycled gold, silver, and platinum
SCS Recycled is a certification mark issued by SCS Global Services verifying that precious-metal content in jewellery and metal product originates from documented post-consumer or post-industrial recycled sources rather than from newly mined material. The standard requires chain-of-custody documentation and third-party audits to confirm material provenance from the recycled feed through smelting, refining, and any subsequent fabrication. Certified recycled gold, silver, palladium, and platinum carry the SCS Recycled Content mark and are positioned for buyers who want to reduce the environmental impact associated with new mining. The certification does not address labour practices in the underlying source operations or the chemical processing methods used in refining; it focuses solely on material origin and traceability.
Scope of the certification
The SCS Recycled Content standard applies to refiners, casters, and manufacturers across the precious-metal supply chain. The certification verifies that a defined percentage of the metal in a certified product is recycled, with the percentage threshold typically at 100% for jewellery applications but with intermediate percentages permitted for other product categories. Source materials qualifying for recycled status include post-consumer gold from refining of jewellery scrap, dental gold, electronic waste; post-industrial gold from manufacturing offcuts and casting waste; and equivalent post-consumer and post-industrial sources for silver, palladium, and platinum. Newly mined metal does not qualify, regardless of the mining operation's other characteristics.
The chain of custody runs from the source documentation at the refiner through any intermediate processing — alloying, casting, fabrication, finishing — to the final product. Each handler in the chain must document the input and output of certified material and must be itself certified or working under a certified handler's documented procedures. The audit trail allows SCS Global to verify the recycled-content claim for any particular product back through the supply chain to its source.
Limitations and what the standard does not address
The SCS Recycled standard addresses material origin only. It does not certify that the refining process itself is environmentally clean, that chemical handling at the refinery meets any particular standard, or that the labour conditions at any stage of the supply chain meet international norms. Refining recycled metal involves substantial chemical processing, including the use of cyanide leaching, aqua regia, and other reagents that carry their own environmental implications; SCS Recycled does not address these. The standard also does not distinguish meaningfully between post-consumer and post-industrial sources, which means that internal manufacturing offcuts that have never left the producer's premises can qualify alongside genuinely post-consumer scrap. Buyers who care about the broader sustainability profile of their metal need to look beyond SCS Recycled to other certifications and to producer-level disclosures.
Position in the trade
SCS Recycled certification has been adopted by a growing number of refiners and jewellery manufacturers, particularly those serving brands and retailers with sustainability-led positioning. The certification appears on jewellery packaging, product descriptions, and marketing material, and gives the buyer a third-party verified claim that distinguishes the product from generic recycled-metal marketing. Other certifications in the same space include the Responsible Jewellery Council's Chain of Custody Standard for recycled metals, various mill-test reports issued by individual refiners, and brand-specific traceability programmes. SCS Recycled competes with these but is not exclusive of them; many certified manufacturers carry multiple certifications in parallel.
In the trade
SCS Recycled certification supports the recycled-gold and recycled-silver claims that have become routine in the higher-end and design-led segments of the jewellery market. Buyers asking about the source of metal in a piece of jewellery may receive an SCS Recycled certificate or an equivalent third-party verification as documentation; the certification carries weight in supporting recycled-content marketing claims. The standard applies to recycled metal feed and does not address mined material. See also SCS Global, recycled gold, Responsible Jewellery Council, Chain of Custody Standard.