Warby Parker, Eastman partner to recycle demo lenses

Eyewear brand Warby Parker, headquartered in New York City, has announced a partnership with Eastman to molecularly recycle its demo lenses.

According to the company, one of the greatest environmental impacts within the eyewear industry is the lack of a recycling solution for demo lenses—the clear plastic lenses used across the industry to maintain frame shape and integrity while in transit, on display and for try-on. With the 600 million frames produced annually industrywide, this practice generates more than 5,000 metric tons of waste per year globally, the company says, citing the 2019 Statista Eyewear Report.

Since the summer of 2021, discarded demo lenses from Warby Parker’s optical labs in Sloatsburg, New York, and Las Vegas have been sent to Eastman’s facility in Kingsport, Tennessee, where the company uses its Carbon Renewal Technology, a form of chemical recycling, to break the lenses down to their molecular level to be reused as the building blocks to create Eastman Acetate Renew. This product is an acetate that is 60 percent bio-based and 40 percent certified recycled content. The companies say Acetate Renew is chemically and physically identical to traditional acetate, offering a sustainable solution with no compromise to aesthetics, durability or performance. Warby Parker adds that it plans to begin incorporating Acetate Renew into some of its frames later this year.

With its demo lens recycling program and by beginning to source Acetate Renew for new eyewear, Warby Parker says it is making progress toward a circular solution and lowering the environmental impact of producing its frames.

“From day one, Warby Parker has set out to find innovative solutions to everyday problems—and along the way, we’ve taken a stakeholder-centric approach,” Neil Blumenthal, co-founder and co-CEO of Warby Parker, says. “We’re committed to evaluating how our operations impact our employees, customers and the environment, and our partnership with Eastman exemplifies this commitment. We hope that others in the eyewear industry will join us as we work towards solutions to lessen our impact on the planet and its people.”

Scott Ballard, Eastman vice president and general manager of specialty plastics, says, “Warby Parker’s commitment to reduce the impact of their products on the environment has been evident throughout this project. Eastman appreciates their commitment to take action and change the status quo. The demo lens to Acetate Renew breakthrough is the first of what we expect to be many examples of Eastman customers leveraging our molecular recycling technologies to divert material from landfill and lower carbon emissions.”