Our first product made with certified plastic from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, with 100% of the proceeds going to the continuation of the cleanup efforts. The impact: each pair funds the cleanup of 24 football fields worth of ocean.
Hi all,
My name is Boyan Slat, and I am the Founder and CEO of The Ocean Cleanup.
In 2013, my TEDx talk where I presented my idea on how to clean up the oceans went viral and led to enough momentum to start The Ocean Cleanup. The Ocean Cleanup’s mission is to develop advanced technologies to rid the oceans of plastic. We do so by both stemming the inflow of plastic from rivers, and by cleaning up the legacy plastic already out in the ocean. And to help fund the continuation of the cleanup, we also want to recycle the plastic into new durable products that people can cherish and help spread the message of clean oceans further. It’s been a long journey to get to where we are today, and we are still many years away from completing our mission, but we’ve reached some pretty cool milestones along the way - the latest one being this product!
Last year, we caught our first batch of plastic in the ocean, and we have now been able to turn it into a beautiful, high quality product – The Ocean Cleanup sunglasses. Here are some key things I’d like to highlight about them:
Each pair helps clean 24 football fields worth of ocean in our continued cleanup.
Designed in California and manufactured in Italy. High quality and made to last.
However, should you ever want to recycle them, they can be fully dismantled, and each material recycled separately.
Every pair has a QR code connecting the sunglasses to the owner. By scanning this code, you can showcase your support on the go. It also includes a lost and found feature.
The sunglasses also come with 2 accessories with their own story, the case and the pouch:
The case is an homage to our very first cleanup system System 001 / “Wilson”. It looks like it and is also made with the material of it.
The pouch is mimicking the look of the big bags used to transport the caught plastic from the ocean back to land and is made from recycled PET.
The plastic in the frames is certified ocean plastic (standard developed by DNV GL), meaning you can be sure that they are made with plastic caught in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, the massive plastic plastic vortex between California and Hawaii.
Crazy to think that only 1 year ago, this was harmful plastic polluting the ocean, and now its something useful, helping to clean up even more plastic.
My team who helped make these sunglasses will answer any product-related questions you might have here.
@boyanslat Hi Boyan. Very impressed by your work. Is there anyway to pay directly to cleanup the ocean? e.g I could donate $x and get x football fields of trash cleaned up?
@matthew_gordon@aguilaair_tech Thanks Eduardo and Matt! Donations don't have an exact impact calculation as they are allocated to the org as a whole. Proceeds from sunglasses are directly to cleanup.
Being completely upfront: I work with The Ocean Cleanup, but I can confirm these are quality sunglasses, but even more I can attest to the hard work that went into making them. This is one of the most dedicated teams I've ever worked with and their passion to improve our planet usng technology is inspiring. I'd say, check out the sunnies - if you can - and definitely give The Ocean Cleanup a follow on social media to stay up to date as we try to achieve this important mission.