The first ever eco-friendly glasses could be about to hit the market

Potatoes, human hair, yoghurt pots and old CDs are some of the materials being used for a new collection of eco-friendly glasses. 

The ‘Redux’ collection, from London-based eyewear manufacturer Cubitts. features 10 sets of frames, with each made from its own unique type of waste. 

Most frames are usually made from cellulose acetate, a semisynthetic plastic - but with consumers now paying close attention to the environmental consequences of the products they’re buying, the time has come for the industry to think of alternative manufacturing processes.

We wanted to go a step further and demonstrate that not only can broken spectacles be saved from the tip, but that the materials found in a tip can become new spectacles.

"We've always lamented the notion that once something has no immediate use, it becomes waste," said Cubitts founder Tom Broughton. "This is as true in the spectacles industry as it is for many others."

"While we've always offered repairs and favoured renewal over replacement, we wanted to go a step further and demonstrate that not only can broken spectacles be saved from the tip, but that the materials found in a tip can become new spectacles."

Although the Redux collection is not yet available as part of Cubitts’ commercial offering, it is surely only a matter of time. Could this be the beginning of a revolution in the eyewear industry? If this experiment is successful, could we see high street retailers such as Specsavers and Vision Express following suit?