Textiles, Fashion, Sports and Footwear

Sunglasses Maker Uses Plants

While everyone scrambles to ditch plastic straws, some com­panies are finding customers by ditching the plastic that's common in other products­--like sunglasses, which contribute to the 6,000 tons of annual waste produced by the manu­facture of eyeglasses.

Finding few high-end options for eco-conscious consumers, Stacey Gorlick and Craig Gonsenhauser saw an opening.

In March 2019, after a year of research and a $180,000 friends-and-­family funding round, they launched Just Human out of their West L.A. home.

Each microfiber cleaning cloth is made from recycled plastic bottles.

All packaging uses postconsumer recycled materials.

Even the tape comes from tree pulp.

Pineapple

The case exterior is made of pine­apple leaf fibers from the Philippines, and the interior recycles plastic fishing nets recovered from the ocean.

Good Optics

Just Human’s $260 glasses use biomaterials whenever possible, and are designed to be one-size-fits-all in an effort to minimize wasteful, unsold inventory.

Not Plastic

Most companies prefer first-use plastic for lenses because recycled plastic has a lower level of clarity.

Just Human uses glass for its lenses, which is more expensive, but clearer, more durable, and more scratch-resistant than plastic.

Also Not Plastic

The hefty polished frames are made from easily reforested softwood trees.

The wood is approved by the Forest Stewardship Council and the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification, meaning it doesn’t come from protected forests or endangered species’ habitats.

REFS

Published on inc.com

How a Sunglasses Maker Swapped Plants for Plastic

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