How to Purchase an Ethical Ring
Diamond mining has had a negative environmental impact, resulting in deforestation, erosion of soil, relocation of locals, vanishing wildlife, etc. Even a ring made of poorly-sourced gold can produce up to 20000 kilograms of waste.
Some jewelers use recycled metals and conflict-free diamonds to make their engagement rings. As there are many such jewelers, you should select an ethical product from the best site to buy diamonds online. Most of them will reveal whether they trade in lab-made diamonds and conflict-free diamonds. So the best way to know whether they sell those is to look for the same information on their website.
Blood diamonds are extracted from the earth in war-torn places, where conflict is usually financed by the illegal diamond trade. In such areas, poor miners work in very dangerous conditions, and they go through human rights violations and abuses.
It can be a headache to know whether a diamond was used to cause others harm or smuggled out of conflict-ridden areas. However, today you can buy ethical jewelry that will not have any of these devastating links. Better yet, you do not need to sacrifice either on style or quality in doing so.
Lab-made diamonds are not just ethical, but these also have the same physical, optical and chemical properties as their mined counterparts. When you buy a lab-grown diamond ring, the matter of conflict does not even get into the equation.
One thing to consider is whether the diamond is “Kimberley-certified,” as they are believed to be conflict-free. The KPCS (Kimberley Process Certification Scheme) was introduced to eliminate the conflict diamond trade, but diamonds mined in conflict areas are smuggled to KPCS areas to be certified. So you should consider more things than just whether mined diamonds are certified so. The Kimberley certification alone is not enough.
If your jeweler can trace them back to their source, then you can be sure that they are conflict-free. Diamonds mined in most areas in the world are ethical. So there are ways to purchase natural diamonds as well, if you know where to look and what to look for in diamonds.
A study conducted by YouGov revealed that 9% of millennials feel that the most significant factor when receiving or buying an engagement ring is ethics. Millennials are more ethically-minded people than the generations before them, and they are reaching an age appropriate for getting married.