Make your own Silver Dip

Last night, SP ran the dishwasher with a little bleach in it for it's monthly cleaning cycle. Unfortunately, there were some silver baby spoons in it and they came out pretty tarnished and messed up. The good thing is, we have an Eco-friendly recipe for silver dip. So farewell harsh silver chemicals, and hello homemade! Caution: Do not stack the pieces - lay them out separately. So not use on plate, raised patterns or cemented knives.

Ingredients
aluminum foil
non-aluminum pan
2 Tablespoons baking soda
1 Tablespoon salt
boiling water

Process

1. Place your silverware on some aluminum foil in a non-aluminum pan.
   
2. Add baking soda and salt.
   
3. Pour boiling water into the pan, enough to fill it up and cover all the silver.
   
4. Take out, using tongs, after about five minutes.
   

How sustainable is silver?

This is a serious question for me, not in terms of how long it lasts, but in terms of how good or bad it is for the environment. In my craft work, I am trying to understand if silver wire is the wire I want to use for jewelry because of it's ecological ramifications. I understand that it needs to be mined like any other ore which is degrading the environment in one way or another, but my greater concern lies in the smelting process (if that is what it is actually called). I know that aluminum smelting is horrific and kills whole swaths of forests down wind. I have been handed down a piece of silver that has clearly lasted many generations. This one piece I am posting on my recipe blog, dates from the 1800's and is still used regularly in our house. I know that if I chose, I could recycle it, so in that way silver is sustainable. I will never recycle this, but I want to know what it took to make it.