Eco friendly jewelry from recycled materials goes one step futher and relies on recycled silver, gold and brass and reclaimed materials as well as fair trade gems only. Like all green jewelry it doesn’t look recycled, it is made from the same materials minus the toxic ones and those from dubious sources. It respects the fair trade terms and therefore helps people in poor countries to get a fair value for their materials, discourages the exploitation of workers in the third world. In addition, pearls used in green jewelry come from aquacultures and not from wild oysters, ensuring to keep the eco system ocean untouched.
One thing you should pay attention to is that eco friendly jewelry can contain created gemstones instead of minded ones. While there ecological advantage of these stones is almost neglegtible, their value is often lower since they are no natural stones. You can’t instantly spot created stones since they look very similar to mined ones, so you should always ask before buying. Just be aware that especially cheap offers often contain these types of stones, keep in minde the resale value is lower, too. Nothing bad with them, but don’t let anyone sell you a created stone for the price of a mined one.
Many smaller producers in the United States started offering green jewelry a few years ago, unfortunately the big mass producers didn’t adapt to this new ecological trend in manufacturing jewelry, so finding sources to buy it may be a little harder than for normal jewelry.