The Ocean Cleanup Launches A Line Of Eyewear Made From Ocean Plastic

Several organizations have taken part in cleaning up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch — a huge floating “landfill” of plastic waste drifting in the Pacific Ocean. Typically, the garbage is collected, transported to shore, and hauled to appropriate landfills.

However, The Ocean Cleanup, a nonprofit organization based in Holland, decided to separate plastic from the rest of the ocean waste and upcycle it into fashionable sunglasses that could fund future cleanup efforts. 

According to Inhabitat, the organization has developed an advanced garbage retrieval system that allows them to sort through the collected debris, separate and label plastic materials for further processing.

“The certified plastic was then processed at a commercial scale, creating a strong, durable plastic for the sunglasses. The sunglasses are designed by Yves Béhar in California and manufactured by Safilo, a leading eyewear company in Italy. Every part of the product is made for recycling at the end-of-wear lifespan, including the polarized lenses and metal hinges. Because the amount of certified plastic is limited, the number of sunglasses produced is small.”

With each purchase of the sunglasses, you support cleaning up an area of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch the size of 24 football fields.

The Ocean Cleanup has vowed to put 100% of the profits back into the process and develop new, more effective ways of cleaning up the ocean.