Ocean waste eyewear brand encourages customers to “sea” plastics differently

A US-based eyewear brand has launched a new range of sunglasses made from plastics recovered from the marine environment.

Norton Point, based on an island in Massachusetts, has developed a line of sunglasses made using high-density-polyethylene (HDPE) collected from the ocean.

The company, which funded the project via a campaign on crowdfunding website, Kickstarter, says its mission is to help create a value chain for the reuse of ocean plastic.

“To create the value chain, we need to show that consumers will want to purchase goods made with ocean plastic, resulting in this material being viewed as the valuable resource it is,” it says.

The company says it is committed to giving five percent of its net profits to global cleanup, 

education and remediation practices.

Making the case for recycling

The soft and hard cases, as well as the cloth pouch supplied to protect the sunglasses are also manufactured using recycled materials.

The hard outer case is produced using the same recovered HDPE as the sunglasses themselves. The soft case is produced from old wetsuits and includes an ocean plastic d-ring for clip on/off storage. 

Every pair of sunglasses includes a pouch that is constructed from upcycled tyres and locally sourced linen.

Project partners

Collaborators on the project include ‘The Plastic Bank’, an organisation established to “make plastic waste a currency to help the world’s most disadvantaged people”, as well as Ocean Conservancy and Ecologic Designs.