How eco friendly is Dittany Rose jewellery? Part 1

Like everyone else I now spend a lot of time pondering the climate emergency and what I can do, to do the least harm, both in my personal life and for my business. 

My jewellery is made from paper, silver and resin. I've decided to try to find out how eco friendly those elements are and where I can make improvements. I'm going to look at each material in turn. It may take some time to make changes but I'm making a start. 

First we need to define 'eco friendly'. The dictionary says 'products which have been designed to do the least possible damage to the environment'. However, sometimes what seems like the most eco-friendly product actually has a higher impact on the environment when looked at, say, from its whole lifecycle.  

This BBC report , for example, looked at whether plastic, paper or cloth bags are greener. The outcome was not clear-cut. However, there are four useful questions in the report that could be used helpfully to analyse the environmental impact of any material. They are: 

• how much energy is used during manufacturing?
• how durable is it (ie how many times can it be reused?)
• how easy is it to recycle?
• how quickly does it decompose if thrown away?

In my next blog I'll look at the first of my materials - paper - and try to answer the questions above.