A New Line of Sunglasses Is Made With Recycled Ocean Plastic

There are plenty of fish in the sea, and, unfortunately, there's also a lot of trash. One report estimates that there’s more than 165 million tons of plastic in the ocean, and some 90 percent of seabirds around the world have eaten plastic of some kind. A sunglasses company called Norton Point is turning that trash into treasure with a new line called Sea Plastic Differently.

The three styles of sunglasses available have frames made of high-density polyethylene plastic recovered from the ocean. Norton Point harvested plastic waste in Haiti through a social impact-focused company called Plastic Bank, which operates plastic collection facilities around the world. The discarded bottles and other trash get turned into pellets, which are then molded into frames. For each pair of glasses sold, Norton Point pledges to clean up a pound of plastic from the ocean.

The glasses feature an ocean wave pattern that makes the texture look a little rougher than your standard Ray-Ban, but otherwise they look pretty similar to any other pair of shades. But just because they’re made of trash doesn’t mean they’re cheap. You can nab an “early adopter” pair on Kickstarter for $79.

This isn't the first time the world’s vast heap of ocean plastic has been turned into something useful. Among other things, it's resulted in Adidas sneakers and colorful beach dwellings.

All images courtesy Norton Point.