The term on everyone’s lips recently has been “sustainability”. It’s become an important aspect of all our business, and life, practices, and isn’t something that we should ignore! Whether you recycle your bottles and cans, donate your old clothes rather than throwing them away, grow your own food, or even just decrease your energy consumption, no matter how you live sustainably it makes a difference! But how can we be sustainable in our jewellery boxes?
Sustainable jewellery is jewellery that is produced without negatively impacting people, or the planet. Jewellery sustainability can be achieved in many ways, spanning from using ethically sourced materials and labour, to recycling and re-purposing old pieces. No matter how you are sustainable, it all helps improve the industry! If you’re still unsure how you can make your jewellery box sustainable, take a look at some of the many ways you can incorporate it into your jewellery pieces.
Sustainably Sourced Material
There are so many materials that can be used in jewellery making, but ensuring they’re sustainably sourced can whittle down the options a little bit. Sustainably sourced jewellery means that the material used to make the piece were sourced ethically, meaning that they’re fair trade, conflict free and free from child or slave labour. There are multiple ways to ensure that the piece you’ve been eyeing off in the jewellery store window is ethically sourced. It’s becoming common practice now for jewellery stores to advertise their sustainably sourced materials. However, of you can’t see anything about the origins of the piece, asking an employee of the store could lead you in the right direction. Ethically sourcing jewellery means that unethical businesses and practices lose our business, hopefully encouraging them to make more sustainable and ethical decisions in the long run.
Recycling Old Pieces
We don’t mean that you put your jewellery into the yellow lidded bins to be broken down! Bringing in an old, unworn jewellery piece to your local jewellers to be repurposed into something new and fresh is an amazing way to bring more sustainability into your jewellery practices. Jewellery pieces can often be melted down and created into a new piece! Repurposing old jewellery pieces significantly reduces waste and overconsumption, as well as leaving you with a beautiful jewellery piece exactly as you designed!
Customise
Designing a custom piece could also be a way to introduce sustainability into your jewellery. But how can creating an entirely new piece help sustainability? Not only can you repurpose materials, you can also ensure that all materials used in your custom design are sustainably and ethically sourced. This ensures that all aspects of the piece are sustainable, however, creating an entirely custom piece also ensures that all your specifications are met in a high-quality manner. This could greatly decrease overconsumption and waste, while also ensuring the longevity of a piece.
While there are so many other ways to introduce sustainability into your jewellery practices, small steps can lead to a big difference. Trying out a few small sustainability practices in your day-to-day life might just be the baby steps you need to make a big change.
