The true price of jewelry: your rings have cost more to the planet than to you

In recent years, as society has become aware of the importance of sustainability, we are advancing towards the circularity of the economy (although there is still a long way to go), with recycling and reuse as stones angles of this new model. But there are sectors in which applying these concepts is not only important, but absolutely necessary, such as jewelry.

At present, according to sources in the jewelry sector itself, between 2,500 and 3,000 new tons of gold are mined worldwide. Unfortunately, this process is not about digging deep and hard (although that also has a huge environmental impact), but about destroying entire ecosystems, breaking up the earth and causing real environmental catastrophes.

The level of Lake Polley rose in a few minutes more than 1.5 meters thanks to the filtering of polluted water

In 2014, the Mount Polley gold mine, located in Canadian British Columbia, suffered a terrible accident when one of the check dams it used dumped 24 million cubic meters of waste into Lake Quesnel: seven years later, The inhabitants of the area continue to struggle to clean the areas where they live and the water they need to irrigate their fields and feed their cattle from heavy metals such as copper or gold.

Most of the gold obtained by the Mount Polley mine was destined for jewelry, which worldwide is one of the sectors, along with electronics, that most depend on this precious metal. This causes the extraction of this metal to be so valuable that the environmental repercussions of it are not taken into account.

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— Antariksa Thu Jul 08 12:32:10 +0000 2021

In the same way, other very dangerous heavy metals, both from a medical and environmental point of view (such as mercury), are used daily by jewelers around the world, which in turn has a great impact on ecosystems around the globe.

A new approach

But some problems can be an opportunity. This is the case, for example, of the jewelry brand Wonther, created by Olga Kassian, a Ukrainian raised in Portugal who tried her luck in New York (where environmental awareness is very high) and who has achieved great success manufacturing 'jewelry sustainable'. To create them, instead of resorting to 'cheap' newly produced gold, the brand undertakes to recycle used jewelery (as if it were 'buying gold') but paying a price 20% higher than market value. Does it hit her? Vouchers used to pay for the sale of used jewelery can only be used to purchase sustainable jewellery.

From the company, they clarify that, despite the fact that measures are taken to make mining more respectful of the environment, "the only way to make a precious metal 100% sustainable is through recycling" . This is how Olga Kassian herself explains it: "Our goal is to create a circular economy in which we only work with recycled precious metals."

Although the (tremendous) problem of obtaining gold and the use of heavy metals are not the only environmental challenges facing the jewelery industry (it has a large carbon footprint, for example), they are some that that, finally, we began to remedy it.