Who doesn’t own sunglasses? Since they are so popular, most people probably own two or three pairs. However, you occasionally purchase a new pair. Usually, you wear them to seem fashionable or to shield your eyes from the sun’s damaging UV rays.
Whatever the cause, though, it ought to be deliberate. If you plan to purchase another pair of sunglasses, you can purchase ocean cleanup sunglasses, which come from one of the many environmentally friendly manufacturers available.
Why should I hunt for environmentally friendly brands? Well, traditional sunglasses needlessly contribute to environmental contamination. And you don’t want to succeed in that.
The majority of brands use a mix of materials, such as paint, plastic, metal, etc., to make sunglasses. When we throw away a pair of shoes because they’re broken or we just don’t like them anymore, they typically wind up in landfills. And the planet suffers as a result.
Luckily, there are a few socially and environmentally concerned businesses that make fashionable, eco-friendly sunglasses out of recycled ocean plastic.
You can go to these companies’ websites and read the whole explanation of how and why they make these sunglasses. Their experiences are incredibly motivating. In addition, some give back by aiding philanthropic endeavors.
Make sure the sunglasses you want to buy are produced by a company that cares about the environment. They employ moral behavior and environmentally friendly products.
Their aim is typically centered on environmental issues as well. These businesses will stop at nothing to make sure they are using resources completely and efficiently because they want to be environmentally conscious.
Their commitment to something different is another feature that makes them stand out from a lot of other firms. Businesses that truly care about the environment typically engage in more than just selling stylish sunglasses.
They wish to contribute more to the solution of problems or by providing more assistance to their local communities. One example would be the planting of a tree upon the sale of a product. or by taking a significant amount of plastic [bottles] out of the water.
Table of Contents
Ocean Cleanup Sunglasses
- Waterhaul
- Karün
- Costa
- Sea2see
- ReefCycle
- The Ocean Cleanup
1. Waterhaul
They collect plastic from our oceans and use it to create high-quality, useful objects that serve as “symbols for change” and adventure. Waste is only a resource that has been misapplied; we respect ocean plastic as a special substance that has a narrative to tell.
The production takes the following processes
Recover
Gathered from all across Cornwall’s shoreline. In addition, we are creating programs to help stop gear loss at the source, in addition to a port-based trial program in Pembrokeshire.
Recycle
After sorting gear based on polymer type, it is recycled using a mechanical shredding and washing process. After that, the plastic is extruded into pellets, which serve as our raw material.
Redesign
They use 100 percent recycled raw material to create useful products by injection molding this plastic. This is the point at which we give plastic “waste” a new meaning.
The strongest type of plastic found in our seas is used to create incredibly sustainable recycled eyewear. designed to serve as a “symbol of change” for our oceans while also satisfying the technical requirements of adventure, ocean exposure, and UV protection.
These glasses are created from 100% recycled fishing net and are meant for ocean adventures; each pair of Waterhaul frames has a lifetime warranty of 4.98/5 because they are made from nets that would endure decades in the ocean.
2. Karün
With the help of the sunglasses, we can fund long-term projects that can help safeguard large areas of unspoiled nature and provide hundreds or even thousands of rural entrepreneurs more power. We can also share and promote our unique perspective on the world.
They are making great efforts to construct a whole value chain around a circular, restorative, and regenerative model as opposed to a linear and extractive one.
Karün Collectors Development
The Karün Collectors are the first in line; they collect various wastes that have an impact on the ecosystem. They then sell the trash, which includes metal and fishing nets, to create an extra revenue stream that allows them to grow their microbusinesses.
Karün stays with them all along the way to teach them time and resource management skills that they may use on their projects. In this way, the Karün Collectors may survive without relying on garbage.
Circular Production Process
They are putting a lot of effort into creating a circular, restorative, and regenerative value chain for their whole value chain. They forward the waste that is discarded to their recycling partners from Karün collectors.
The garbage is converted into their patented raw material and shipped to their manufacturing partners in Turkey and Italy, where premium frames are made. Being a CarbonNeutral® Company, they offset the remaining carbon emissions brought about by their operations and logistics.
You are urged to return the sunglasses if and when their useful life comes to an end so that fresh plastic garbage doesn’t enter the environment. You will receive a discount on any brand-new Karün sunglasses in exchange.
Regeneration and conservation
They are supporting an exciting 4-year initiative with over 600 rural businesses in Cochamó and Puelo River Valley (Northern Patagonia); this region is known as “the Yosemite from South America”; the plan is funded in part by the proceeds from the sales of their products.
This campaign, which was created in collaboration with its social partner Balloon Latam, intends to use community engagement to help safeguard 400.000 hectares of pristine natural areas.
3. Costa
Fishing nets that have been abandoned are the most hazardous type of plastic pollution in the ocean. They collaborate with Bureo, a group that works with fishermen to stop abandoned fishing nets from contaminating our seas and endangering marine life.
4. Sea2see
Since 2015, the goal of Sea2See has been to raise awareness about the problems of plastic pollution in the ocean and the unsustainable fashion and optical sectors on a worldwide scale.
As trailblazers in the sustainable development of the eyeglass industry, they have brought attention to the importance of marine plastic trash as a valuable supply of raw materials.
Instead of making watches or eyewear, they make a statement of change that anyone willing to safeguard our oceans can wear.
5. ReefCycle
WWF-Australia and Arise Collective introduce ReefCycle, a range of eco-friendly, upcycled sunglasses made from a once-deadly commercial gill net in the northern Great Barrier Reef. With 50% of sales going towards supporting more WWF conservation efforts to save Australia’s marine life, the project is contributing to the Net-Free North.
Every ReefCycle, available in size 54, is constructed entirely of recycled gill net. The frames have the word “ReefCycle” embossed on them, the logos of WWF-Australia and Arise Collective screen printed on them, and a screen print of a marine species of your choice that you are contributing to its preservation.
ReefCycle is available with lens tints in black, grey, or green. Additionally, they provide a broader selection of lens tints and coatings and are prescription-ready.
ReefCycle is enabling a circular economy in the eyewear industry by upcycling materials that were previously deadly to marine life into something practical and sustainable. Half of ReefCycle’s earnings will go towards supporting WWF’s conservation efforts, such as their support of a net-free North.
6. The Ocean Cleanup
The Ocean Cleanup initiative, which aims to combat plastic pollution in the marine environment, has launched its first product and hopes to market products manufactured from the debris it recovers to finance its ongoing operations.
All of the plastic used to make Ocean Cleanup sunglasses comes from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, and the sunglasses themselves are easily recyclable when their useful lives are over.
After being sorted, cleaned, and compounded into verified high-quality plastic, the waste it gathered throughout that mission was utilized to make sunglass frames.
These have stainless-steel hinges and polarised lenses, and their components are made to be readily disassembled and recycled when their useful lives are over.
The glasses also come with a pouch made from recycled PET bottles and a case constructed from recycled parts of the original trash-catching system.
The Ocean Cleanup intends to finance its upcoming missions to remove plastic garbage from the marine environment using the money raised from the sale of these sunglasses.
If every pair manufactured from this first batch of recovered plastic is sold, the group predicts that it will be able to clear up an area the size of 24 football fields from the garbage patch; if all pairs are sold, it will be able to clean up 500,000 football fields worth of plastic.
That may sound amazing, but every year between 5 and 12 million metric tonnes of plastic end up in the ocean, and in the next 20 years, that amount is predicted to quadruple, or a lot of sunglasses.
The Ocean Cleanup team will be aware of this, but its new eco-friendly eyewear isn’t a bad place to start as a representation of its achievements to date and a model for a “circular” market for plastics. The cost of each pair of glasses is US$199.
Conclusion
As we can see, these are beautiful sunglasses that also ensure you live sustainably, but I would say they have a downside that can be addressed, and that is the pricing. They are costly for the common man.
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A passion-driven environmentalist by heart. Lead content writer at EnvironmentGo.
I strive to educate the public about the environment and its problems.
It has always been about nature, we ought to protect not destroy.