Segni di speranza: “The Value of Recycling” featured in Donna Moderna
On April 9th, Donna Moderna featured minrl within the article “Ci sono nuovi segni di speranza” (There are new signs of hope), a reflection on small but meaningful actions shaping a more sustainable future.
What makes the article particularly compelling is the way it weaves together different forms of expression, art, landscape, and material culture, into a shared reflection on how we leave our mark on the world.
At its centre is Valle Camonica, a UNESCO World Heritage site where, thousands of years ago, humans carved their presence into stone. These engravings are not simply images, but traces of intention, marks that endure, carrying memory across time.
Within this broader reflection, Donna Moderna brings together different approaches to sustainability: from the painted interpretations of Tullio Pericoli, to the repair-focused philosophy of Prism, and the use of recycled materials by Freitag. Each represents a different way of engaging with what already exists, through art, care, or transformation.
It is within this context that Donna Moderna presents our collection The Value of Recycling. Composed of coin-shaped charms engraved with recycling symbols, the collection reflects on value as something that can be redefined and carried forward.
The coin becomes a metaphor: a kind of currency that allows us to restore rather than consume, to contribute rather than extract, a way to imagine, and invest in, a cleaner future.
This perspective extends to the material itself. Each piece is made using reclaimed metals, reintroduced without the need for new extraction. Value, then, is no longer tied to origin, but to transformation, to the ability of something to continue.
Like the engravings of Valle Camonica, these gestures are a way of leaving a mark. Today, they may be quieter, a recycled material, a conscious choice, a piece of jewellery, but no less significant.
Being included among these “signs of hope” is meaningful not only for the recognition, but for what it suggests: that change can take shape through objects, symbols, and small, deliberate actions.
Jewellery has always carried meaning across time. With The Value of Recycling, that meaning shifts, less about possession, more about participation; less about permanence, more about continuity.
What we create now will shape what remains. The question is no longer only what we make, but what kind of value we choose to represent.
