Buying an engagement ring says a lot about who you are: Your sense of style as an individual or as a couple. Choosing something that is environmentally friendly is the new status symbol for the affianced.
Diamonds Are Not a Girl’s Best Friend
Making a sustainable choice means selecting a stone that was not mined in cruelty. The UN defines “Poverty Diamonds” and “Conflict Diamonds” as coming from miners who work for subsistence wages in Africa. While many companies try to emphasize how mining creates development through providing economic growth, mining’s immediate effect lies in the conflict that these valuable rocks create in impoverished lands.
Even if the mine itself did not employ underage children or starve workers, the diamonds themselves are often smuggled at great profit. Washington Post correspondent, Douglas Farah reported that the Al Qaeda network reaped “millions of dollars in the past three years from the illicit sale of diamonds mined by rebels in Sierra Leone.” (2 November 2001.)
Ecological Consequences of Gold Mining
Gold mining and refining is a deadly industry. Cyanide is used to separate gold from rough ore, though it often leaks into waterways with deadly consequences to ecosystems. A single 18-karat gold ring is estimated to produce eighteen tons of waste.
There is however, an option to reducing the waste created by buying new jewellery; have something made from existing gold or silver jewellery.
“Green” Gold: Recycled Jewellery
An alternative is to look for a jeweller who can work with your design and fashion a ring out of an existing piece of gold jewellery. By simply melting down one piece to fashion new rings out of old necklaces or rings, “something old and something new” are bound together, proverbially and symbolically.
Now married to his fiancée, Matthew Beckley of Greenbelt, Maryland popped the question with a traditional, initialed ring given to him when he was an infant. Matt's wife, Jackie was delighted. “I have a family heirloom, and something that is so tied in to Matt’s history means that much more to me.”
Finding Sustainable Jewellery
If you don’t have any jewellery to transform, buying a ring in a pawnshop is not always the image of seedy desperation seen in the movies. Keep in mind that they may even have the style or model you have in mind, and if not, an inexpensive ring can be remodelled by a reputable goldsmith.
Many goldsmiths are capable of designing both engagement and wedding rings, and working together with your fiancé(e) can be a romantic venture. Some online shops like GreenKarat.com offer design services, but a more local choice would be to check out your neighbourhood via Yellow Pages to look for your nearest goldsmith.
Reducing and re-using applies to jewellery as well to other aspects of green living. Don’t feel pressured by slick commercials that suggest new, large and expensive is either traditional nor the norm. Most engagement rings throughout history were handed down through families and featured rubies - their colour represented the heart.
A sustainable future begins with a green present – after all, who doesn’t want their “happily ever after” to include a cleaner environment?
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