Sustainable Wedding Bands and Recycled Gold: Crafting Love with Care in Vienna
Choosing sustainable wedding rings offers a beautiful way to celebrate your love story while aligning with your values.
In this article, we are going to cover everything you need to know about the value of choosing sustainable wedding bands!
Recycled Gold and Its Environmental Impact
Recently, recycled gold wedding rings have become very popular and it’s for good reason – they minimise environmental impact noticeably while retaining their timeless value.
According to The Wellness Feed, a news publication that reports on eco-friendly solutions highlights the significant environmental impact of mining new gold:
Approximately 20 tons of mining waste is generated to mine just one ounce of gold.
Using recycled gold leads to 99.8% fewer greenhouse gas emissions than using mined gold.
One gram of recycled gold saves 680 liters of water (the equivalent of 1,437 individual 16-ounce bottles of drinking water).
This translates to one ounce of recycled gold saving 19,278 liters of water (the equivalent of 40,739 individual 16-ounce bottles of drinking water).
Choosing recycled gold wedding rings a powerful way to showcase your love and commitment to a sustainable future.
What Is Recycled Gold?
Simply put, recycled gold is high-quality gold extracted from pre-existing jewelry, coins or other sources like computers and other technical equipment, through a melting and refining process to create beautiful new pieces.
In addition to not tarnishing, gold can be melted repeatedly without losing its precious elemental properties.
Here in Vienna, we work with ÖGUSSA, a leading foundry in precious metal recycling, to turn old coins and jewellery into refined gold ready to be crafted into new designs. By recycling and reusing locally, we shorten the transport emissions, as well.
Offering the same brilliance, purity, and durability as newly-mined gold, recycled gold eliminates environmental costs, and is the perfect basis for beautiful jewellery that should accompany you for a lifetime.
Environmental Benefits of Using Recycled Gold
Choosing to use recycled gold for your wedding jewellery offers many benefits to the environment, including:
Reduced impacts from mining, including mercury and cyanide poisoning, on the land, water supplies, mining operations workers, nearby communities, and neighboring wildlife
Fewer greenhouse gas emissions due to being much less energy intensive
Conservation of water and other natural resources, since gold mining can use up 20 million gallons of water per day
Reduced waste generation from the mining process
Helping local ecosystems, as less gold mines means that the surrounding nature can thrive.
In addition to protecting the environment, recycled gold protects people. Miners are often paid minimally while being exposed to harmful chemicals that can lead to life-long health issues.
All in all, recycled gold offers the same timeless beauty as mined gold, minus the environmental harm.
Katie G.: A Commitment to Sustainability
Our designs are directly inspired by nature’s beauty, which is one of the many reasons why we commit to producing and selling our jewellery as sustainably as possible.
Protecting our environment is crucial, so we are proud to source responsibly, produce locally, recycle where we can, and continue to educate ourselves on how to be better.
Recycled Gold For Custom Wedding Bands
Wedding bands are a physical representation of the unique love you share with your partner. We love to fuse recycled gold, modern and traditional fabrication techniques to create the perfect wedding bands for you. Our custom rings are tailored to your and your partner’s specific hand shapes, leading to a beautiful presentation and a great fit. [LINK TO BLOG POST]
Furthermore, we love to use recycled gold specifically for engagement and wedding rings - pieces that carry so much meaning which therefore should be connected to a positive association. Beyond their reduced environmental impact your rings are crafted with love locally.
Locally Sourced & Rich Heritage
The production of mass-produced wedding rings typically involves significant transportation and shipping, resulting in a substantial carbon footprint.
Because we use recycled gold sourced here in Vienna, the gold we use minimises environmental impact while ensuring its highest quality.
Vienna has a long history of creating stunning jewellery. At Katie g., we continue this legacy with eco-friendly wedding bands that are a perfect blend of tradition and environmental responsibility.
Personalise Your Wedding Band to Be Sustainable
When designing your custom recycled gold wedding band, we like to walk you through four main decisions to define your perfect wedding bands: shape, width, material, and surface texture. Find out more HERE.
Wedding and engagement sets can be customised by pairing recycled gold with your favorite gems for a highly personalised statement of love. You can also merge recycled gold with existing heirloom pieces as a beautiful way to recycle treasures and give them new life.
Even if you’re not sure if what you want can be done, ask us – we can guide you on the best ways to turn your wedding and engagement ring vision into breathtaking reality.
If you’d like to learn more about recycled gold sustainable rings, reach out to us today. To schedule a free consultation, please request an appointment for a custom ring or tour of our engagement ring collection in Vienna. We look forward to seeing you!