Did you know that over 3 billion pairs of spectacles are sold globally each year?
This number is on the rise as the population grows and the fad for fast fashion and multiple ‘looks’ grows within the industry.
Spectacles are often manufactured from plastic which is derived directly from oil and has a damaging impact on the environment in terms of emissions and plastic waste.
According to Vision-Ease, one pair of spectacle lenses has a footprint of nearly 5 KG of CO2 equivalent.
The impact doesn’t end there.
In 2020, in a study by Ace and Tate, it was found that an average spectacle frame’s footprint is around 4.30 KG of CO2 equivalent.
That’s the same footprint as 172 cups of coffee or almost 6 t-shirts.
So what solutions are there to reduce your footprint when it comes to your eyewear?
Your old specs can’t be recycled in household waste.
There are businesses such as Peep where you can donate your old eyewear
They are then reconditioned and resold by Peep, whilst you receive a discount off their entire pre-owned and vintage eyewear range.
One of the biggest positive impacts you can have is just replacing the lenses replaced in your current frames.
In this way, you are lowering your emissions and reducing the amount of waste entering landfill.
If you really do want to change your specs then our favourite current sustainable alternative is the fantastic Waterhaul.
Buying from Waterhaul helps you not only lower your footprint but also helps solve another issue – that of ocean plastic.
Every year 640,000 tonnes of fishing nets are lost or discarded in the ocean which, by weight, accounts for 46% of all ocean plastic.
Waterhaul intercepts fishing nets from our oceans and shores and transforms them into high-quality, functional spectacle frames and sunglasses that are fast becoming ‘symbols for change’.
All their frames come with a lifetime warranty and once you are finished with them, simply return them to Waterhaul and they will recycle them into new frames.
If you want to make a sustainable switch, simply head over to Waterhaul’s website.
Whilst there, you can take advantage of a 20% discount using code SPRING20.
‘Circularity is so important as we move away from a buy, use and dispose economy. Companies like Waterhaul should be saluted for using innovation to answer not just one but two issues. I will certainly be buying a pair of their specs when I next have an eye test.’
Richard Dickson – Co-Founder, Play It Green
If you want to do your bit by offsetting and reducing your footprint and have a social impact, please join Play It Green, we would love to welcome you.