Sustainability
Our Ethos
The Society inc is inspired to take part in the vital dialogue taking place globally around conscious design & purchasing power to drive change for people and the planet.
Our mission is to bring back the time when the pieces you bought felt as if someone had whittled them or hammered their form to perfection with their own hands. We strive to create hardware and homegoods to be displayed & loved, not hidden. So much so that our hope is you will never wish to throw them away. Read more about our approach to heritage here https://thesocietyinc.com.au/blogs/editorial/our-heritage-at-the-society-inc
The Society inc hardware & selection of homegoods are manufactured in India, a very intentional choice. This is a country where master craftsmanship and everyday handmade trades have never been forgotten or lost. The uninterrupted craft lineage and approach to resource recovery are deeply embedded in the culture. We’re proud to work with artisans in this vibrant country where heritage trades still observe long-held values around sustainability. With the belief that no parts should be wasted, precious metals and other scraps have not been carelessly lost in landfill, but instead are valued, recovered, reheated, reused and reworked. Old objects are disassembled to be made into something new. These principles of reusing stable materials like brass over and over have been practised for centuries in India. Moradabad, The City of Brass, is where many of The Society inc. products are cast, smithed, forged, braided and tooled. Reclaimed metals are poured, hot & smelting, into chalked pressed metal tins filled with muddied sand for casting. Within minutes a glistening prize is revealed, and with it the accumulation of knowledge passed down from generation to generation for this process, and many others. These metals are often considered more valuable and precious than newly mined metals because they carry the stories and memories of previous generations.
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Technical nutrient
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/ˈteknɪk(ə)l/ˈnjuːtriənt/
Created from stable materials designed to be recovered and reused again and again, in a sustainable closed-loop cycle
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It’s a reminder of the strong foundations built on craft. Technical nutrients like metals and alloys don’t break down like their modern eco-consumer compostable counterparts. But they are strong, malleable & adaptable. With the right consideration, we hope to explore how they can become infinitely recyclable.
Many of our pieces of metal hardware are already crafted from scrap metals, to begin their new life in your home in their fresh shape, but bringing with them a wealth of stories and memories from their previous existence. Please recycle with care to your local scrap yard or follow us on @thesocietyinc as we continue our journey into this field of responsibility and share our discoveries with you.
Responsible Recycling
If you need to dispose of your metal wares, please think of them as resources. Copper, brass, steel & aluminium are accepted by many metal yards to be remade into something new. Your local council will also often accept metal for recycling.
Keep a box in the garage & convince the kids to do a metal run for some extra pocket money. Brass, aluminium & copper receive buy-backs & iron can be taken free of charge. Metals with top coats of powder coating or sealers are also accepted.
Australia-wide drop-off and pick-up metal recycling locations:
NSW pick-up recycling of various materials:
Recyclesmart.com
Packaging Disposal Guide
We are inspired by the quintessential general store from times gone-by, with timber shop counter, turned legs, open shelves lined with glass apothecary bottles, fresh produce on show, ribbons, trinkets & twine overflowing the shelves. There is a nostalgia in brown paper packages that hark back to these stores that personified hyper local community & business.
We have adapted the theme; our goods are protected in crushed brown paper for transit, packed inside of a brown paper box & shipped to us from India in brown cardboard packaging. The shades of brown vary, and sometimes the outer box has a mark or stamp from its previous life. But we embrace the quirks of the recycled.
We have endeavoured to take plastic out of the equation. When your goods arrive, take the brown paper & shred the cardboard into your household compost bin or recycling. Compost bins need 2:1 brown to green, so this will fuel a healthy compost breakdown. Otherwise put in the household recycling. Our tags, string can go in the recycling and the bags that convey our nails and pins can be composted or reused for your trinkets.
If you have ordered a style that has been packed with styrofoam or plastic to protect a mirror or otherwise, please note we are working with our production and delivery partners to develop alternatives.
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