How green is your valentine gift?

How green is your valentine gift?

Nothing shouts romantic intent like jewels, but the industry's glittering allure has been tarnished by exposes of unethical practices!

Oh! never knew all this until I read it... dunno how much you'd be interested, but ah! the life's not all about the "glitters"

Top five green and ethical choices
1. Fifi Bijoux – sells ethically mined gold pendants and certified diamonds mined and polished in Canada. The brand is the brainchild of Vivienne Johnston, a leading campaigner for ethical jewellery who thinks nothing of lobbying the leaders of gold-producing nations for better conditions – in person. From £120.

2. Uncommonly beautiful – solves the problem of the impact of precious metals by ingeniously using something else: an abandoned chest of drawers or a discarded wine box, beautifully reworked with, say recycled bronze. Who needs diamonds? Around £25.

3. Made – Fairtrade-certified and works with independent artisans and small communities in east Africa, particularly Kenya. Extremely affordable Made pieces are also on-trend and have a big fashionista following. There's a high-end range too. From £7.50.

4. URTH – a project using ethical gold from Peru and top-end designers such as Stephen Webster (bling purveyor to the stars) and Pippa Small. From £180.

5. Recycled Circuit Board Cufflinks – something geeky and green for the gents who are often left out of the equation. £16.

Why I went on to read that?

Eco and ethical concerns

• Ecologically speaking, gold-mining is a nightmare. Some of the largest gold reserves are visible from space and opencast mining uses cyanide poured on to the land, which draws out not just gold but also toxic substances such as arsenic. This should be a closed process, but in reality the result is widespread contamination of the surrounding environment. Then there's mercury. A University of Nevada report found "startlingly high" concentrations of the substance in the air around northern Nevada's gold mines.

• The footprint of your average gold ring includes around 18 tonnes of waste and 5 tonnes of water. In water-scarce Honduras, a large gold mine will draw around 220 gallons of water a minute.

• The human cost of gold mining is massive. Between 1990 and 1998 more than 30,000 people were displaced by gold mining. As three quarters of the world's gold has been mined, miners are expected to go deeper than ever before. By 2011, the migrant miners working in the world's most productive gold mine in Driefontein, South Africa, will need to descend 4km to get to work. They earn less than $10 (£7) a day.

• Child labour is still believed to be prevalent in the gemstone polishing industry, 90% of which is now carried out in India. Meanwhile, despite sanctions against the Burmese regime, rubies are routinely smuggled out of Burma to the global market.

• There is widespread debate among the diamond trade as to whether blood or conflict diamonds are an historical anomaly. Under the Kimberley Process, UK jewellers should be able to provide certification to consumers, proving that rocks are from a conflict-free source. Yet the whole process lacks teeth and or an independent verification system. A 2007 UN report claimed that thousands of diamonds were still illegally entering the international market, smuggled through the legitimate markets of Ghana and Mali.

Phew!

Ah! nothing as fresh as a lovely beautiful flower with the fragrance of true feelings in it..... but hey that doesn't mean I don't like gold/platinum jewellery!

Source

Have a happy Valentine's day