At the beginning of every new year, the media always shouts about “Resolutions!”…..”New Year, New You!”……etc etc. Statistics show that nearly 80% fail by the second week of February! Too much pressure and perhaps too big a goal?
I prefer to set smaller goals throughout the year but my main one this year is to consume less and be more mindful of what I do consume and where it comes from. When I say “consume”, I don’t mean food…I mean in physical, material items. In particular, plastics……we’ve heard a lot over the last year or two about single use plastics and the damage they do to the environment.
I want to follow that through to my business as well. One of my suppliers is now using paper bags instead of plastic for many of their products which is fantastic. I’m going to be looking at my own packaging practices and see if there is anything further I can do.
Jewellers are very good at recycling and reusing materials, after all, gold and silver are not cheap! Scrap can be melted down either at a Refiners, where they pay for your scrap material and turn it back into sheet and wire, or many jewellers will melt the precious metal themselves to create something new.
I also don’t want to buy for the sake of buying….I’m as guilty as the next jeweller when it comes to tools but have I already got a tool that can do the job or one that can be adapted? Can I borrow the tool from a jeweller friend or buy it second-hand?
I also want to be mindful of where my materials come from, have they been mined in an ecological and ethical way? Different things but both equally as important.
So, let’s see where this takes me this year. I’m looking forward to 2019 and all the adventures it holds!
