Ukrainian start-up Ochis Coffee has found a highly creative and fashionable way to produce frames for glasses with an environment-friendly material: coffee grounds.
The start-up produces frames made of the by-product of coffee beans, which is then mixed with flax and a vegetable oil-based biopolymer before they are moulded into a brick shape from which the frames are cut using computer technology.
According to Forbes, the glasses made by Ochis biodegrade 100 times faster than standard plastic frames. And they come with an additional eco-friendly bonus: the frames transform into a natural fertiliser for new plants if they are put in water or soil.
“I grew up in a family of opticians and I have been helping my parents since I was a kid. That is why I know almost everything about glasses,” Maksym Havrylenko, the founder and CEO of Ochis Coffee, told Forbes.
Mr Havrylenko, who has 15 years of experience in the eyewear industry, added that he wanted to create “something new and natural” as an entrepreneur, and coffee waste just seemed the best possible material for the start-up’s project, given the drink’s huge popularity.
“I always wanted to create something really useful and now, in the epoch of a coming ecological disaster because of the great quantity of plastic waste all over the world, I finally feel that I am on the right way,” he said.
“The global aim of our team is to establish full-scale production of innovative goods made from raw materials to replace the outdated technologies of harmful plastic production,” he went on, describing the company’s ambitions. However, he acknowledged that the company currently has only “small series production.”
Ochis is aiming to produce 10,000 frames in 2020, 100,000 in 2021 and to extend its network of distributors all over the world.
In August, the company released a new line of sunglasses that are fully made of organic coffee grounds, offering new lenses and new frame shapes all of which provide UV and HEV protection, a UV filter or polarisation, with the new lenses being made from recycled cotton.
The start-up’s Kickstarter fundraising campaign raised 13,000 US dollars, exceeding the initial target of 10,000 US dollars.
You can take a look at the sustainable and fashionable eyewear Ochis produces here.
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Photo: Ochis Coffee Eyewear
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