Our Ethics
Crystals:
As spiritual people, it is our duty to live by the code of 'love and light' that we preach. It is our belief that you cannot be of love and light while also contributing to unethical practices, simply for you to get your latest crystal fix.
Every day there are miners working in borderline slavery, on extremely low and unlivable wages, working in harsh and unstable conditions. Some of these miners are as young as 5 years old. If it is not the poor conditions they are working in, these unethical mines often collapse or release lots of toxic dust, causing many deaths or injuries. This is not here to scare you, but to enlighten you as to why ethics in crystal mining and selling are so important.
So, how do we, as ethical crystal sellers, hold ourselves responsible? Here at Constellation Crystals we pride ourselves on working with a range of people with the same goal. This ranges from wholesalers, to mines, to individual suppliers all over the world. Every wholesaler we work with has an 'Ethical Trading Agreement/Statement' which requires them to only work with miners that are working in safe conditions, with fair pay and ensuring they are of age to be working legally. One of our main suppliers are a family run business that originated as conservationists - working with other local rock hounders and lapidary clubs to produce some of the most beautiful and sustainable stones on the market. Another supplier of ours has installed fresh drinking water, and provided fair pay, new job opportunities and education opportunities for oppressed women living in areas of poverty. We also carry stock from Indonesia occasionally, from a lovely man who owns a mine of his own out there. He works with a small team of local people in the Indonesian Mountains to mine the highest quality produce, sending me constant videos of the whole process.
You may have heard a lot in the community about crystals from China always being fake or unethical. To us, this is quite a political standpoint which likens places like aliexpress or wish with ALL Chinese sellers - which is simply untrue. China produces some of the most beautiful and high quality fluorite, and we ourselves source from China, with complete satisfaction in the working quality and ethics standards provided by our supplier.
While there are some areas geographically that are safer to purchase ethical crystals from than others, we believe that it is possible to obtain crystals from any location as long as the work is done to ensure their sustainability. We would never rule out a whole country of sellers just because some have given the region a poor reputation.
On top of this, the suppliers we work with work hard to ensure their environmental impact is as minimal as possible, by refusing to invest in explosive devices or heavy machinery used in mass excavation, instead choosing to work with small groups of artisan miners that contribute to less than 1% of mineral extraction.
While as sellers it is not our duty to disclose the names of the suppliers we work hard to find, you can always feel free to message any seller if you require more details on their ethics. If they seem to be reluctant to give information, or give basic answers, it is likely they are unsure of their crystal's origin or are lying about their ethics.
So you can shop with Constellation Crystals, safe in the knowledge that your crystals were sourced ethically and we are committed to that cause!
Environmental Impact:
We have now committed to becoming almost entirely environmentally friendly.
We only use cardboard boxes or paper insulated bags when packaging - both of these being 100% compostable and biodegradable.
The tape we use for most boxes is paper tape. Inside your package we use acid-free tissue paper, eco-friendly bubble wrap and packing peanuts. The peanuts being made of starch - that can be broken down in landfill or in a sink of water and then washed down the drain without damaging aquatic life.
We package each order with a sticker and a recyclable business card. We unfortunately are yet to find an alternative to plastic tape, but this is our only drawback.
If we were to ever use plastic bubble wrap or mailing bags, these would be reused from orders we have received.