It is pretty rubbish. It’s just ridiculous really, especially when I’d bought these to put on once I’m awake following surgery. I’m trying to do as much as I can to look good and feel good. Most companies would (I’d like to think) like to retain customers and avoid bad press. There’s an excellent report here:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/pamdan...b-grown-diamonds-to-no-avail/?sh=20c1e0181a25
Martin Rapaport recently released an incendiary memo to the diamond and jewelry industry calling on them to stop doing business in lab-grown diamonds (LGD), which he characterized as “synthetic” and “fraudulent.”
He also claimed those selling LGD were “operating dishonestly and unethically” and trading short-term opportunities at the expense of those that are “certain and sustainable.”
Rapaport is the ultimate industry insider, and there’s no question about which side his bread is buttered on. As chairman of The Rapaport Group, his company is a portal for information about and services to the diamond industry, including the Rapaport Price List, which it claims is the industry’s primary source for diamond price and market information, and an online diamond trading network, RapNet.
I discovered that lab grown diamonds are made in practically the same way as Swarovski crystals. A lab grown diamond is worthless - if you try going to a jeweller, they’ll only offer you money for the gold. There’s lots of articles online trying to condone and support the use of lab grown.
Manufacturers market their lab-grown diamonds as sustainable, suggesting they are a more responsible option for some consumers. But how accurate are these designations?
Greenwashing can happen in any industry, even diamonds, and when a company uses the term “environmentally friendly,” and “Transparent” the definition can be vague. You want to ensure that the company you’re buying from can legitimately stand behind its sustainability claims.
Here is what’s happening in the controlled environment of a diamond lab:
- The process that takes millions of years underground and uses the natural heat and pressure of the environment to create a natural diamond is mimicked in a lab in mere weeks.
- While the factories don’t usually have assembly lines, the machinery requires constant energy, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to produce the gems. The source of this energy is important to the ultimate sustainability of the gem.
- Labs use enormous microwave-heat generators to replicate the earth’s process through high pressure, high temperature (HPHT) production that requires maintaining a temperature above 300°F or chemical vapor deposition (CVD) that relies on temperatures as high as 1500°F.
- Their carbon footprint isn’t great. If the manufacturing process for lab-grown diamonds uses energy generated from fossil fuels, it may even create more carbon dioxide emissions than natural diamond mining; most factories still rely on fossil fuels to power the reactors.
