Why we need to talk about the sustainability of your jewellery.
Jewellery is as old as mankind and at the same time never outdated. But the glamour is sometimes deceptive. Just like clothing production, the manufacturing of jewellery harms both the environment and the workers. Poor working conditions, low wages and child labour are just some of the problems of the jewellery industry. We have summarised 4 of the most important problems for you.
Problem 1: Overconsumption
In 2020, the global luxury jewellery market amounted to about 18 billion euros. China accounts for the largest share, closely followed by the US, Japan and India. The value of the jewellery market is expected to increase by 62 billion US dollars by 2025.
While part of the jewellery market consists of timeless luxury pieces, most of it is once-worn costume jewellery. Just like in fast fashion, cheap costume jewellery is only worn a few times before it ends up in the trash due to its low quality.
What is costume jewellery? Costume jewellery is jewellery that reflects current fashion trends and is inexpensive to produce. In the process, the silver or gold coating fades quickly and thus the cheaper materials underneath the coating quickly appear.
Costume jewellery is not biodegradable. This means that once the costume jewellery, which is usually made of a combination of gold and plastic, ends up in a landfill, instead of rotting it releases dangerous toxins into the air and water. Because of the cheap purchase price of costume jewellery and the rapid wear of the coating, customers are encouraged to keep buying more. Jewellery trends such as the world-famous Pandora bracelets also encourage people to buy new jewellery, as a new charm can be bought for almost every occasion.
Therefore, it is no wonder that jewellery boxes, just like wardrobes, are getting fuller and fuller.
However, there is light at the end of the tunnel: a study from 2014 showed that more than 80% of consumers would like to buy ethical jewellery and are also willing to pay more money for better jewellery quality.
Problem 2: Lack of transparency and complex supply chains.
Those who believed that the supply chains of the fashion industry are complex have not yet thought about how jewellery is actually made. Raw materials like gold, diamonds or silver are rare. Gold is often mined in South Africa, Australia, Russia or the USA. But due to the high gold prices, gold is also mined in remote areas in South America. The processing of the gold again takes place in other countries and the jewellery itself is also produced in another country. The supply chain from "mine to market" is very long and typically looks like this:
1: Exploration → 2: Mining → 3: Sorting → 4: Cutting → 5: Polishing → 6: Jewellery creation → 7: Inspecting and certifying → 8: Selling the final product.
For many brands, it is not easy to find out in which country the raw materials were mined. In addition, they often do not know which mine and under which specific working or environmental conditions and protective measures the raw materials were extracted.
Problem 3: Environmental Concerns
It is common knowledge that the extraction of valuable raw materials is not always clean. This also applies to raw materials such as gold and silver. The mining of precious metals causes the following environmental problems:
Air pollution: during production, organic compounds from solvents are released as well as other hazardous air pollutants.
Water pollution: Mining precious metals requires large amounts of water on the one hand and contaminates groundwater with toxic chemicals such as cyanide, mercury and sulphuric acid on the other. This threatens the drinking water supply.
Ecosystem damage: Noise, vibration and erosion from mining have led to the death of thousands of animal and plant species and soil degradation.
Greenhouse gas emissions: Each carat mined releases about 57kg of carbon into the atmosphere.
Hazardous materials. Jewellery can contain nickel, cadmium and lead, which can be harmful not only to the wearer but also to the environment.
Diamonds are a girl’s best friend but the environment's worst enemy.
For example, to mine one diamond, it is estimated that 250 tonnes of earth have to be moved for each carat. Currently, we mine about 148 million carats a year. This creates huge mines that can be seen from space. All of this carbon is produced whilst a diamond is about the size of a pea.
Problem 4: Social Concerns
Worldwide, about 100 million people work in the jewellery industry. However, only very few of them notice the high profits of the jewellery industry. Child labour in particular is a huge problem in this industry. Many children are confronted with unsafe working conditions and are exposed to severe health risks from inhaling dust and other dangerous particles.
The toxic chemicals used in the mining of precious metals are, of course, not only harmful to the environment but especially to the local workers. Cyanide and mercury are just a few examples of chemicals to which the workers are exposed daily and which can lead to disability or even death. When diamonds are cut into the so-called princess cut, which we as buyers are most familiar with, diamond dust is released which can also lead to long-term health complications.
There are also inadequate safety precautions on the construction sites, sometimes none at all. For example, diamond miners in South Africa face a 20% higher mortality rate than the general population.
As if that were not enough, the mining and trading of diamonds and precious metals are closely linked to violent armed groups around the world. Due to the high market value of gold, silver and diamonds, both individual groups and government forces try to gain power over the mining areas.
We must also not forget to mention that to open up new mining areas, thousands of people have to leave their homes.
As you can see, the shimmer and shine of diamonds and jewels are accompanied by a dark shadow. However, there is already a solution to this and that is diamonds from the laboratory, which look exactly like real diamonds but are much more environmentally friendly to produce.
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