How Can Jewellery Be Ethical?

You only buy free range eggs because you can’t stand the thought of caged hens. You’ve started making sure your face wash doesn’t have plastic beads that are going to be washed into the ocean and eaten by fish. You reuse your plastic bags and always remember to take them shopping with you. Now you find out that even the nice things you buy yourself as a congratulations for doing your bit to save the planet could be doing some harm? Bummer, I know. But it is true. Ethical jewellery is a mine field and many of the most simple elements of the jewellery we wear every day could be sourced in unethical ways. Here are a few things to look out for when you are on the hunt for ethical jewellery.

Ivory – I think it is pretty obvious to most people that this is a big no no if you want to buy ethical jewellery. 100 elephants are killed every day for their ivory, meat and body parts. Numbers of elephants in the wild have dropped by 62% in the past decade. It may be easy to think that buying something made from antique ivory doesn’t harm elephants now, but where there is demand there will be supply. Avoid! Avoid! Avoid!  In all our travel bracelets and wanderlust jewellery, we use the amazing tagua seed also known as vegetable ivory. It is tough, beautiful and totally ethical. One palm will produce for around 100 years, the seeds fall from the tree (like coconuts) so no palms are cut down and the seeds can’t be eaten, so they cannot be used as a food source. It is so important to us that we create ethical jewellery, and this will always be at the forefront of what we do!

Diamonds – Many companies now claim that 100% of their diamonds are ‘conflict free’. Even though many brutal civil wars have now ended, violence in diamond mines remains a serious problem. Many diamonds are still stained by severe human rights abuses such as forced labor, beatings, torture and murder. There is no such thing as certainty when buying a ‘conflict-free’ mined diamond. But there is hope! Did you know that there are now lab grown diamonds? Ethical, affordable (well, more affordable anyway…) and produced in the same way as mined diamonds, you get all of the shine without the guilt. Think of it in the same way as making ice in your freezer as opposed to chipping ice from a glacier; both are ice regardless. I’ll take 10!

Precious metals – Some of the big hitters in the jewellery business have recently been pulled up for having no idea where the precious metals they use in their jewellery come from. There has recently been an initiative by the Fairtrade Organisation, which we all know well, to ensure that jewellers who sign up to become a Fairmined partner know exactly where their precious metals have come from. These mines sign up to high welfare and living wages. Look out for members of the Fair mined and Fairtrade association when shopping.

Crystals: Much like diamonds, the crystal mining industry is buried in conflict. There are issues around sustainability: crystals are a non-renewable resource. There are some worrying questions around labour: most jobs are low paid, unsafe, and sometimes performed by underage workers. And there is an issue around accountability: the industry is unregulated, allowing exploitation to go unchecked. Unless the person selling the crystal has seen it taken from the earth with their own eyes, there is no way to tell it has been ethically sourced. 

Buying ethically can be a complete minefield, and most people are doing what they can to make sure that they buy sustainable products that don’t harm the environment or the people around the world who help to make it. At Life Less Ordinary, we are committed to creating ethical jewellery. We ensure that everything we use is ethical, cruelty free and our supply chain is transparent. This means that you can enjoy your travel bracelets and wanderlust jewellery knowing that you have supported fair trade and no animals or people have been harmed in the creation of your Life Less Ordinary jewellery. Unless you count the robins at our workshop, who are getting lazier, fatter and more demanding by the day…