Wedded to the idea

Recycling Today, Sept, 2004

Good Point Recycling, Middlebury, Vt., has made public its new provisional patent, which was filed last fall and registered in March, for "recycled-content" gold wedding bands.

"We started off just looking at ways to make computer recycling less expensive and that led us to recovery of gold and copper from the computers," Robin Ingenthron, founder of Good Point Recycling, says. "When we found out how much cleaner recycled gold is than mined gold, we were determined to do more and more of it."

Ingenthron continues, "If Americans make this one environmental purchase, the free market will steer recycling back where it should be."

The 24-carat gold must be alloyed with post-consumer recycled copper or something similar, he says, in order to produce the bands. "We are discussing finding the right artisan to do that."

He acids that the lead content in the rings is slightly higher than what he would like, describing it as "tiny but measurable."

American Retroworks Inc. owns and operates Good Point Recycling.