Named after the sunniest place on earth—Yuma in Arizona, USA—w.r.yuma have recently launched the world’s first 3D printed sunglasses made from recycled materials. Using sunglasses as a metaphor to inspire people to see waste differently, they’re opening up some very interesting conversations about our potential to re-think what we do with our waste. And, more to the point, getting us to ask big questions like, “What is waste anyway?”.
“It’s not waste, until it’s wasted.”—Sebastiaan de Neubourg
w.r.yuma founder, Sebastiaan de Neubourg, studied mechanical engineering and went on to work as a sustainability consultant to entrepreneurs building sustainable, closed-loop businesses. Seeing these people shaping the future and contributing to the global conversation on waste, he was inspired to add to the conversation himself by tapping into current waste streams to start his own circular brand.
Based in Belgium, w.r.yuma 3D print and assemble their sunglasses by hand, incorporating the highest quality Italian lenses offering 100% UV protection. The waste plastic used as the base material for their frames is sourced locally, predominately from used car dashboards, fridges and soda bottles. It’s shredded and turned into 3D ‘printable’ ink and is fully traceable. Creating the frames using 3D printing technology means no material is wasted, unlike traditional eyewear, which is laser-cut from panels. And, their sunglasses are designed to be disassembled at end-of-life. Just like HNST jeans, which we wrote about here, they offer a discount on your next purchase when you send your old sunnies back to them to recycle once again.
Like other forward-thinking brands working within circular business models, w.r.yuma consider every single part of the design process when it comes to their products and how they run operations. 3D printing technology has come a long way over the past 10 years, and affords the opportunity for creative expression without the waste. They could literally print hundreds of different designs and for that reason, have named each of their first five frames after a constellation, leaving plenty of names for future frames. Cephi, Ross, Gemma, Caph and Gienah are all made from 100% recycled black car dashboards. They’re also available in special edition semi-transparent white made from 90% recycled PET plastic, taking two small soda bottles to make each pair.
While they’re not 100% zero waste yet, their goal is to make sunglasses from the ones that are returned to them, closing the loop on production. Sebastiaan believes we can learn a lot from nature to move away from our take-make-dispose approach to design and production and help us return to truly treading gently on the planet.
“Innovation and sustainability are inherently built into the natural world, it’s the original startup. Designs in nature are, though natural evolution, continuously optimised. All materials are also recycled in a closed loop.”—Sebastiaan de Neubourg
As co-founder of Biomimicry Belgium, Sebastiaan believes we should look to translate or ‘mimic’ natural designs to solve human problems. For w.r.yuma, the idea of regeneration fuelling the cycle of life—where something grows and then is returned to the earth to grow once again—is where true innovation in sustainability lies. In nature, waste is food for another species. This is how whole ecosystems thrive with no loss of material. In the circular production of sunglasses, w.r.yuma will recycle it’s own sunglasses (when returned by customers) to transform into new sunglasses, closing the loop on the product’s life-cycle.
If all matter remains on Earth, but is merely ‘transformed’ from one form to another, it’s incredibly important for us to think about what those transformations might be. We’re responsible for the health of our planet, which in turn affects the health of our people, so we need to radically re-think the way we make things so as not to impact our environment in a negative way. When we think of materials as ‘food’ or ‘nutrients’ we make the connection between ourselves and our environment in a way that compels us to make better, smarter decisions, and make us accountable to ourselves and each other.
w.r.yuma are adamant they are not going to be defined as a sunglasses brand, but rather, a brand who seeks out opportunities to continue to get us thinking about our attitude to waste. We’re looking forward to the products and projects they create next and know they will continue to be a strong voice for sustainability well into the future.
“Our sunglasses aren’t going to change the world, but the people who wear them will.”—Sebastiaan de Neubourg
For the moment though, w.r.yuma are making sunglasses. Beautiful ones. Hop over to their website and check out their inaugural collection. Initial production has been funded via their highly successful Kickstarter campaign—they exceeded their 10,000 Euro goal on the first day. This is what turning trash into treasure looks like at its finest.
x KT
Image: Courtesy of w.r.yuma
0