Recycling Gold-Plated Plumbing Fixtures – All That Glitters Could Be Gold

Do you have a quantity of bathroom fixtures that are plated with gold? If so, you could have something quite valuable that can be recycled in our gold refinery. Here’s what you need to know.

Most Newer Gold-Colored Bathroom Fixtures Are Usually Not Valuable

Image of gold-plated faucet, one form of plumbing fixture which can be recycled and refined by Specialty Metals.

In the last few years, bathroom designers have started to use more gold-plated items, including faucets, spigots, shower heads, and even towel racks and other accessories. Many manufacturers of these products have introduced more gold-toned products to meet the demand.

Lower-priced and medium-priced gold-toned items do not contain quantities of gold that will be recycled someday. For example, a $250 gold-toned faucet set that I saw recently at Home Depot contained very little gold. It was manufactured by electroplating a very thin coating of gold onto a brass surface, then applying a coat of clear lacquer for protection. Not much gold there.

Older Fixtures Can Contain More Gold

In decades past, faucets and spigots were sometimes plated with significant quantities of gold. Usually, those luxurious fixtures were installed in the mansions of wealthy people. If you have come to own a quantity of luxurious older gold-plated bathroom fixtures, they could contain larger quantities of recyclable gold. If you are not sure what you have, call us at 800-426-2344. Our experts will be happy to talk with you.

Want to Learn More? Watch this Video

At least one company, Phylrich, still gold-plates its very high-end brass fixtures the old-fashioned way, in tanks. Incidentally, Phylrich is a terrific company that is committed to doing 100% of its manufacturing in the USA. Here’s a company video that shows how its products are manufactured. Toward the end of the video, you’ll see some beautiful brass spigots and other fixtures being lowered into tanks for plating:

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