Costa Sunglasses, the leader in world-class performance sunglasses and the initiator of the growing Kick Plastic campaign, is helping to bring positive solutions to the growing issue of ocean plastic pollution through its new Untangled Collection—a collection of frames made entirely from recycled fishing nets.
The brand is partnering with Bureo, the pioneer in recycled fishnet products, to turn discarded fishing nets into quality sunglass frames. Identified as the most harmful form of ocean plastic, discarded fishing nets and gear account for ten percent of ocean plastic pollution, which grows by an estimated 640,000 tons every year.
“Healthy oceans have always been a crucial part of our core mission at Costa,” said Holly Rush, CEO, Costa Sunglasses. “The Untangled Collection is helping to raise awareness and provide a solution to keep discarded fishing nets from being lost in our oceans each year. Through this important program, we will also help Bureo scale and replicate its net collection program to a growing number of fishing communities.”
The collection will include four new frame styles made from 100 percent recycled fishing nets, each featuring mineral glass polarized lenses, recycled aluminum Costa logos, PLUSfoam recyclable temple and nose pads, and a unique tumbled finish. The Untangled Collection includes two male/unisex styles, Pescador and Baffin; and two female styles, Victoria and Caldera. All styles feature Costa’s patented 580 Lightwave® Glass lenses, providing 100 percent UV protection and polarization to offer the clearest lenses on the planet. The Costa 580® color-enhancing lens technology selectively filters out harsh yellow light for superior contrast and definition and absorbs high-energy blue light to cut haze and enhance sharpness. In addition, Costa’s lens technology reduces glare and eye fatigue.
“Aligning with partners that really want to support us and expand our mission is how we’ve grown over the past five years,” said David Stover, CEO and co-founder of Bureo. “Working with Costa to develop the Untangled Collection is another step in the right direction—not only for us, but for the replication of solutions to secure a healthy future for our ocean and its ecosystems.”
Bureo’s Net+Positiva recycling program is working to prevent fishing net pollution by partnering directly with fishermen to collect back discarded nets at their end of life and providing funds to local communities for every pound of fishing net collected. This in turn creates value in the discarded material, to generate a net positive impact for this once harmful material. Costa’s Untangled Collection supports Bureo’s ongoing efforts where they have collected more than 220,000 pounds of discarded fishing nets to date.
Once collected, the discarded fishing nets are washed and prepared for a mechanical recycling process. Within this process, they are shredded and fed through a pelletizer where they are melted and cut into small recycled pellets. These pellets are then injected into steel molds to form products, which most recently includes Costa’s Untangled Collection.
“Nets lost at sea are four times more harmful than all other forms of ocean plastic pollution combined,” added Rush. “This new collection is a positive step towards untangling our oceans and creating awareness for the dangers our oceans are facing.”
The Untangled Collection retails from $199 to $269. For more information on the new frames and Costa’s full line of sunglasses, visit www.costadelmar.com/untangleouroceans.