What is Sustainable Jewellery?
At Lala Salama we take pride in knowing our jewellery is sustainable. In basic terms, sustainability is when we are able to meet our needs, without comprising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
Using recycled metals in the making of jewellery avoids the need for mining of metals, and the mining processes can heavily impact local biodiversity, impacting soil and water quality and also contribute to the release of harmful greenhouse gas emissions. Used metals also makes use of scrap metals that would otherwise be dumped. Many of our pieces are handmade from a variety of sources, including redundant keys, locks, metal scrap and jewellery waste. It’s always so hard to discard jewellery – we always keep an emotional connection with each piece.
Wouldn’t it be great to recycle a piece you don’t wear anymore and make it into something you could love again?
Our Brass Collection
Our golden jewellery has been inspired by African culture; using materials that are prevalent in African design. Our entire collection thus far has been handmade using brass.
Brass is a beautiful metal, resembling many similarities to gold, but instead of needing to be mined it is able to be recycled time and time again without diminishing its composition. This means the recycling process can continue repeatedly, making it a hugely sustainable metal.
We believe in encouraging a circular economy; one which reduces the need for the extraction of new materials. Producing new brass from old products uses over 70% less energy than making it from scratch. Less energy means lower carbon emissions. And we all know the importance of this now more than ever.
Caring for Brass
As with a lot of other jewellery pieces, brass just needs a bit of care over time. It is in the nature of brass to evolve over time - turning slightly more rustic, a look which some people love. But if you want it to keep its initial polish, simply buff your pieces with one of our polishing pads.
We strongly believe that now is the time to shop consciously and we want to start driving a change in how we shop, as this will heavily impact our future and the future of generations to come.
