If you are looking for socially and environmentally conscious choices in jewelry, look no further than what the movement of green teens are doing. If you are not familiar with the term, green teens are a group of young people who are making environment-friendly choices in jewelry and restrict themselves to buying from eco-friendly collections only. Started as a campaign to empower urban youth to make more nature-friendly choices, this revolution has caught up everywhere. Now a way of life chosen by some young people, it is making huge changes in every aspect of the modern life.
But being an eco-friendly buyer is not an easy thing to be in the jewelry industry. Even today, when the alarm of conflict diamonds and environmentally unfriendly jewelry have been set everywhere, not all pieces that come to the market are clean. Sad as that is, it is not the fate of every buyer. In fact, one can surely find a way around these problem stones and jewelry if they are set to do so. So, what a green teen or any conscious buyer might do is seek answers.
Here are some questions that every buyer in the modern world should ask and have the answers for before going ahead with the purchase. So, let’s begin.
What Are the Environmental Costs Associated with Regular Diamond Jewellery?
The environmental cost of producing normal diamond jewelry is steep, to say the least. Not only does a buyer pay a hefty sum of money to own it, the negative consequences on the environment are countless. But instead of believing that categorically, you must know what these impacts precisely are.
First off, mining, which is where it all starts. Traditional mining relies on stripping away the skin of the earth to get to its core. As vital as that is to the process, soil erosion and deforestation are damaging to the earth. The irreversible ecological harm mining wreaks on landscape is only the tip of the iceberg.
Mining involves burning of diesel fuel, by hundreds of million gallons, and that’s every year. One doesn’t need to be a chemical scientist to know that’s an awful lot of carbon emission, way above the normal level. But mining companies can’t do without the fuel because pit mining which is the most traditional form of mining involves use of heavy hydraulic machinery and trucks and those demand a tremendous lot of energy.
Now coming to eco-friendly mines, a few have come up in the wake of activists decrying traditional mining processes. Are they what they say they are, or even less environmentally damaging at all? The fact that diamond is a non-renewable resource itself suffices to say that any kind of mining is damaging. The so-called benign mines produce tons of carbon footprints every year, and that as we all know is not very environmentally conducive.
Even alluvial mining has its downside. It takes a toll on the water quality, not to mention the deterioration of aquatic life and bio-diversity it causes.
Why Do Green Teens Opt for Green Jewelries?
Good news is there is still hope for all of us because there are people like them out there who are willfully pursuing this cause for the greater good.
Green teens want to narrow down your choices to jewelry that does not cause any environmental impact. You would be surprised to hear that there is jewelry that has nearly zero environmental impact, which are also benign to the related communities.
The aim of green teens is to buy jewelry that is produced through environmentally responsible procedures and do not carry conflict gems in order to be responsible buyers.
This means jewelry that is not decorated with stones mined from the earth and the proceeds from which do not go to conflict zones.
What Kind of Jewelry Are Fit for Green Teen Buyers?
Now, the question that most green teens have been asking, which jewelries are eco-friendly, and how do you know for sure they really are? Well, one great way to go eco-friendly is to buy recycled diamonds. These are diamonds that were previously owned and after their owners sold them off, they are put back in the market supply chain. So that’s the first choice green teen buyers have.
This is the section where they are likely to find a lot of vintage items as well as classic pieces, none of which were environmentally produced, but are now working towards preventing further damage to the environment by keeping the supply line up.
As good as this option is, most green buyers do not get thrilled at the idea of buying old diamonds and jewelries. That’s fair because new is always better than old.
If you are looking for ethical, environmentally conscious, not-recycled jewelry, then man-made diamond jewelries tick all the boxes. They are fully ethical, considering they are grown in laboratories and so no question of unethical mining practices. They are also conflict free, thanks to the Kimberly Process that now screens all diamonds.
As for sustainability, they are not a hundred percent, because it is not practically possible to hit that mark, but they are definitely a lot more sustainable than the other options you have. These jewelries do not have the problem of traceability, which means you can trace it back to the lab it was made in, the date it was formed and all the details you want. Plus they are so less taxing on the planet. So buying them won’t give you the pinch of guilt.
Are Synthetic Diamonds Less Special?
With all the clamor about clean origin and eco-friendly jewelry in the background, it is a good question to ask whether lab-grown diamonds are any less special than the natural ones. The answer is no. What makes a gemstone valuable is its rarity. Lab-made diamonds have tackled the rarity of diamonds by making it possible to be produced in laboratories in large quantities and in short turnarounds. That has tanked the ever-inflated price of diamonds by finally doing away with the scarcity.
As for the jewelry, they are the same as regular jewelry, the diamonds only shiner, more perfect than mined diamonds, only much cheaper. So they are just as special with a socially conscious aspect to them.
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