By Denis Langlois

 

Companies are taking recovered trash, unwanted items and abundant natural materials and transforming them into cool, unique eyewear.

From upcycling broken skateboards and old whiskey barrels to recycling water bottles and utilizing bamboo, companies are embracing some pretty innovative ways to create unique one-of-a-kind shades and specs.

United Kingdom-based Waterhaul (1) creates eyewear from monofilament gill netting, recovered from the waters off Cornwall, U.K.

Australia-based Good Citizens Eyewear (2) turns single-use soft drinks bottles into frames, with a goal of “untrashing” the planet.

California-based Spexwax (3) rescues unplayable vinyl records to create handmade, one-of-a-kind frames.

And Hungary-based Vinylize (4) makes shades and frames from dump-destined vinyl records, diverting more than three tonnes of old records from landfill sites annually.

Oregon-based Shwood crafts eyewear from seashells, which are encapsulated in a high-pressure resin. The ethos of the company’s Stabilized Series is to preserve natural materials from the most awe-inspiring environments in the world and transform them into one-of-a-kind wearable art.