Purchasing Upcycled Designer Jewelry and Other Eco-Friendly Pieces Are Socially Responsible Ways to Add Beautiful Jewelry to Your Collection.
What Is Upcycled Jewelry?
By definition, upcycling refers to the process of taking existing items or materials, often discarded, and giving them a second life, typically through alteration or modification. Upcycled, recycled jewelry often entails transformation. By taking a piece (or the elements of a piece) and creating something new or altered, consumers and designers can prevent intact jewelry from decaying in landfills, thereby reducing waste. Upcycling is a loosely defined practice that is more about the sustainable mission and outcome than the actual process. In some cases,you may find upcycled bracelets that have been simply rescued from being trashed.
How to Upcycle Jewelry
Upcycling jewelry is a worthwhile practice that can reduce waste, manufacturing costs, and strain on natural resources. Jewelry designers may have the tools and skills necessary to upcycle jewelry on their own, creating new pieces from existing materials. The process of jewelry recycling may be as simple as restringing pendants or charms on new or recycled chains to create upcycled necklaces. Upcycled jewelry can also entail more complex and technical practices, such as wire-wrapping crystals or setting repurposed gemstones. Sustainable jewelry takes many forms, and you can help make a difference by supporting ethical jewelry brands who uphold eco-friendly and conscious jewelry practices like upcycling.
Reclaimed With Love Distributes Complete Pieces of Jewelry that Would Otherwise Be Discarded.
We wholeheartedly support the process of transforming and upcycling jewelry in addition to other sustainable practices. We are also in the practice of donating leftover jewelry so that others can upcycle them and give them new life.
NES Group: A Leader Among Sustainable
Jewelry Manufacturers
Our parent company has been one of the best ethical jewelry brands for more than 14 years. While NES Group is not an upcycled jewelry company, we have consistently practiced an eco-neutral business model that has solidified us as a leader among sustainable jewelry brands.
We Aren’t Looking to Make a Profit; We Simply Want to Be a Part of the Solution
We want to prevent unnecessary waste and avoid contributing to the demand for newly-manufactured jewelry through the Reclaimed With Love project. Rather than allow extra, unwanted pieces of our premium jewelry to be discarded or destroyed, we are giving these pieces new life and allowing our conscious consumers to enjoy beautiful jewelry without spending a fortune. The cost of your subscription mostly covers the cost of packaging materials and shipping. We aren’t looking to make a profit; we simply want to be a part of the solution.
Unique, Guilt-Free Pieces
It’s important to us, as well as our customers, to know that the products we love are both ethical and sustainable. Conscious consumers shop with purpose, making informed decisions about the products they purchase. We’re thrilled to offer a sustainable jewelry subscription service that supports this initiative. We want to bring together like-minded people, whether they hunt for jewelry at thrift stores, adore upcycled jewelry, or simply want unique, guilt-free pieces to add to their collections.
Disrupting the Cycle of Fast Fashion
Disrupting the Cycle of Fast Fashion
The fast fashion industry is a major contributor to pollution and unnecessary waste. Because fast jewelry pieces are lower in quality, they don’t last long, and they will quickly wind up in a landfill because they are treated as disposable.
Fast fashion encourages consumers to purchase cheap pieces of jewelry and discard them when the pieces inevitably break or the buyer loses interest. We strive to disrupt this cycle by upcycling jewelry to promote more sustainable buying practices and limit the amount of low-quality products that are sold and quickly discarded.
Reducing Unnecessary Waste
Demi-fine jewelry is of a much higher quality than typical costume or other mass-produced jewelry, and by upcycling intact pieces rather than disposing of them when we can
easily reduce the amount of waste we produce.
Limiting Our Carbon Footprint
Among other practices, upcycling jewelry is one way we seek to limit our carbon footprint and make a positive impact on our environment. Rather than only creating new jewelry and trashing older, unsold pieces, we can upcycle jewelry instead, giving new life to pieces that have plenty of value without wasting resources or sending products to landfills.
What Sustainable
Fashion and Upcycled
Jewelry Means to Us
As a non-profit project from our parent company, Reclaimed With Love aims to reduce the demand for new jewelry by upcycling premium pieces that might otherwise be discarded.
Keep Quality Products Out of Landfills
Too often, manufacturers send pieces of jewelry to landfills simply because they didn’t sell. These pieces are often high-quality and have nothing wrong with them, but the fast fashion industry expects manufacturers to keep up with trends and demands. Rather than following this belief, we are determined to keep quality, intact products out of landfills and instead put them into the hands of conscious consumers who will love them.
Adopt and Uphold Eco-Friendly Initiatives
In addition to manufacturing jewelry from recycled materials, we uphold numerous eco-friendly initiatives to do our part in combating the environmental impact of fast fashion and the jewelry industry. For more than 14 years, NES Group has also committed to using ethically-sourced stones as well as reusable or repurposed packaging materials.
Reject Wasteful Practices by Using Recycled Materials
The entire principle of upcycled entails repurposing quality materials and giving them new life. When we design and manufacture new products, we do so with recycled metal jewelry materials, cutting back on waste and reducing the environmental impact of our jewelry production, which can be astronomical when mining and refining new materials.We also use recycled and reusable materials in our
packaging to ensure sustainability flows through our entire
process.
Reclaimed With Love: The Ethical, Sustainable Jewelry Subscription Box for You
Looking for a sustainable jewelry box subscription? With a Reclaimed With Love subscription, you’ll get pieces of beautiful, long-lasting jewelry delivered to your door every month. Our brand is dedicated to upholding and encouraging sustainable practices, including upcycling pieces of jewelry and giving them new life.
Upcycled jewelry is all about giving pieces a second life, and the beauty of upcycling is that its possibilities are endless! At Reclaimed With Love, we may not utilize all the techniques listed here.
However you may choose to make your jewelry collection more sustainable, we’re so happy to join you in making our world a better place.
A Community of
Conscious Consumers
Reclaimed With Love is more than a monthly subscription. We’re part of a sustainable movement, connecting conscious consumers and delivering pieces of beautiful jewelry to wear or gift. As part of our mission, we embrace and promote sustainability by rescuing and redistributing high-quality pieces of jewelry that would otherwise be discarded. We know how important it is for conscious consumers to find sustainable fashion options, so we’re making it easy and affordable to have a positive impact on the environment.
Join the Reclaimed
With Love Community
Today
Upcycled /
Recycled Jewelry FAQ
What jewelry is eco-friendly?
Eco-friendly jewelry can come in many forms. Jewelry made from recycled materials, as well as repurposed or upcycled jewelry, are often considered to be eco-friendly.
What is sustainable jewelry?
Sustainability in the jewelry industry typically refers to transparency, ethical sourcing of materials, use of sustainable materials, and environmentally-conscious manufacturing processes. As such, sustainable jewelry is created with these practices in place.
What is repurposed jewelry?
Repurposed jewelry refers to earrings, necklaces, bracelets, and other pieces of jewelry that have been given new life, either through recycling their materials or altering the pieces for resale.
What does it mean to be a conscious consumer?
Conscious consumers are driven by their dedication to make a social, environmental, or economic impact with their purchases. When it comes to buying jewelry, conscious consumers are more likely to seek sustainable and ethical options.
How does fast fashion hurt the environment?
The fast fashion industry is a major source of pollution, carbon emissions, and waste. While fast fashion makes cheaper clothing and jewelry, the environmental impact – including the contribution of10% of humanity’s carbon emissionsandexcessive water consumption– makes the industry unsustainable and detrimental to the welfare of the planet and its populations.
Fast fashion also requires massive energy consumption for processes like textile creation, and the rapid, mass production of goods has repeatedly been tied toforced labor and child laborin countries such as Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Turkey, and Vietnam.
How do you buy jewelry ethically?
Ethically-sourced jewelry typically extends beyond environmental concerns and also accounts for humanitarian ideals. If you are looking to buy ethical jewelry, you need to identify jewelry brands that comply with recognized labor standards, with the most common standard being International Labor Organization (ILO) conventions.
In order to achieve compliance, jewelry manufacturers must not use materials or processes that use child labor or forced labor. Additionally, work conditions must not pose adverse health or safety concerns.
What is the difference between upcycled, recycled, and downcycled jewelry?
All of these types of jewelry entail the sustainable repurposing of pieces or their components, but they do have some notable differences relating to value. Recycling simply means reusing something that has already been used without alteration. When it comes to jewelry, buying pre-owned pieces can count as recycling!
Upcycling typically involves taking something and adding value to it, either by altering the piece or extending its life cycle. Creating a new piece of jewelry from the materials of another piece or salvaging a discarded piece of jewelry to wear or gift is a great way to upcycle materials. The upcycling process is a great way to conserve energy, limit waste, and prolong the life of jewelry.
On the other hand, downcycling is a similar process to that of upcycling, but in transforming an existing piece, downcycling entails taking existing products or materials and making them into something unnecessary or less valuable. This practice is a good way to reduce unnecessary waste when the products or materials have low values or limited life spans.
How can you get rid of jewelry in a sustainable way?
Don’t just throw away your old jewelry! There are plenty of sustainable alternatives when it comes to getting rid of pieces you don’t wear anymore, including:
• Giving them to a friend
• Donating them
• Selling them online
• Selling them to a jewelry store
• Selling them to a jewelry manufacturer that uses recycled materials
• Upcycling them into something you want to wear, gift, or sell
Reclaimed With Love: A Monthly Subscription of Upcycled, Demi-Fine Jewelry Delivered to Your Door
We’ll hand-pick jewelry for you every month so you can add beautiful, guilt-free pieces to your collection.