Safilo Group announces its first eyewear product from recycled plastic made for The Ocean Cleanup, the Dutch non-profit environmental organization that develops advanced technologies to extract plastic pollution from the oceans.

The sunglasses are made with injected plastic from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (GPGP), using an upcycling process able to include types of plastic that have traditionally been more difficult to recycle, turning them into a useable, safe material.

Available in limited-edition, each pair of sunglasses will carry a QR code that directly connects the user to background information about the product, the project and the specific place where the marine plastic pollution was removed from. Each pair of sunglasses is estimated to enable cleaning an equivalent of 24 football fields worth of the GPGP and when every pair from the first batch is claimed, that will equate to approximately 500,000 football fields of clean-up in the GPGP.

“I am very proud of this new project which we have developed in conjunction with The Ocean Cleanup,” commented Angelo Trocchia, CEO of Safilo Group. “More than a year ago, Boyan called us and explained the project he had in mind, and we felt honored to be part of this mission to give a second life to the plastic collected from the ocean. Our design team worked hard to combine our long history of eyewear manufacturing with material innovations to ensure the high quality, stylistic content and uniqueness of this final product. Our investment in using recycled materials is aligned with our continued efforts towards promoting a responsible business and is part of Safilo’s commitment to People, Product and Planet.”

“We are happy to have joined forces with Safilo, one of the top global eyewear companies, for the creation of our first product made from the trash we collected in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. It’s important that we team up with reliable brands, so I’m happy to see them added as another reputable name on our list of most valued partners,” said Boyan Slat, Founder and CEO of The Ocean Cleanup. “The partnership with Safilo proved crucial in transforming the plastic we removed from the ocean into useful, durable products: these beautiful sunglasses. The proceeds from this product will help fund our mission, and we hope they serve as another way to increase global awareness of the urgent need to remove plastic from our aquatic ecosystems.”

For more product information go here.