GreenYour.com

Choosing eco-friendly gold jewelry—and other precious metals like silver and platinum—helps you avoid one of the world's most eco-unfriendly activities: gold mining. This "green gold" can be completely recycled or newly mined under strict environmental regulations.

Find it! Eco-friendly gold jewelry retailers and designers

Strike green gold with the glistening goods offered by the following retailers and designers with a sustainable Midas touch. Eco-friendly gold and other metal jewelry possesses the same quality as its more damaging counterpart so no need to be bashful about admitting that your Au courant bling is recycled.

Choosing eco-friendly gold jewelry helps you go green because...

• Gold is one of the most chemically stable elements on earth yet its process of acquisition—mining—is one of the earth's most environmentally unstable. Cyanide poisoning and overburden disposal are among the concerns.[1]
• In developing countries with gold mining operations, not only is pollution an issue, but human rights violations are as well. Between 1990 and 1998, over 30,000 residents were displaced by mining activity in Ghana.[2]

Gold mining is one the most polluting industries in the world,[3] and its biggest threats include acid mine drainage, cyanide spills, and heavy metal pollution. In the western US, mining has polluted the headwaters of more than 40 percent of western watersheds.[4] The weight of the waste produced by mines in the US is almost nine times the weight of the garbage produced by all of America's cities and towns combined.[5]

Metal mining eats up a disproportionate amount of energy. The industry employs less than one-tenth of 1 percent of the world's population, but it consumes 7 to 10 percent of the world's energy.[5] Mining can also displace local populations.[6]

The production of just one 18-karat gold ring that weighs less than one ounce can generate 20 tons of harmful mine waste.[5] This waste can contaminate nearby water with mercury and arsenic, which is harmful to human health.[5] For example, after a toxic waste spill at a Romanian mine in 2001, 2.5 million people were effected by contaminated drinking water and 1,200 pounds of fish perished.[2] Two-thirds of newly mined gold comes from open-pit mines, which require companies to blast an entire site and remove rock and minerals in the area.[7] Smelters used to purify metals like gold, aluminum, nickel, and copper emit 142 million tons of sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere annually, which is 13 percent of global emissions.[8]

The most active gold producing countries are China, South Africa, Australia, and the US. In terms of importation, the US, Canada, Australia, and Peru topped the list in 2005.[9]

Related health issues

In 2001, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) found that the hard-rock mining industry, which includes gold and silver, released 2.8 billion pounds of toxic waste into the environment.[10] These toxins include mercury, arsenic, cadmium, chromium, and lead. Extended exposure to arsenic has been linked to skin cancer, cadmium can cause kidney disease, lead can stunt the growth of children, and some mercury can damage the nervous system.[11]

Cyanide is used in gold and silver mining to help extract the metals from the rock, and it's used to obtain 90 percent of the gold mined in the US. This toxin will block the absorption of oxygen by cells, which suffocates victims. Cyanide enters the environment through spills, discharges, dam overflows, water runoff, groundwater and mine waste, and it can poison people through inhalation, ingestion, and skin or eye contact.[12]

External links

• Enviroblog - Ask EWG: Is there eco-friendly jewelry?
• the greener side - All that glitters isn't green, but this jewelry is
• Ideal Bite - Adding to your family's jewel collection?
• No Dirty Gold
• Ethical Metalsmiths
• New York Times - Behind Gold's Glitter: Torn Lands and Pointed Questions
• Council for Responsible Jewellery Practices A nonprofit organization that represents over 80 companies involved in the diamond and gold trade. The group's mission statement reads: "Our objective is to promote responsible ethical, social and environmental practices throughout the diamond and gold jewelery supply chain, from mine to retail."