We at NAKED Optics have set ourselves the goal of manufacturing all of our glasses from sustainable, biologically-based plastic by 2025, without sacrificing our high quality standards and the longevity of the products. As a team, we love to be out and about in nature - whether on the mountain, in the forest or on the water. This is exactly why it is important to us to make a sustainable contribution and to minimize our ecological footprint in the long term. With this winter season we start with the conversion of all sports glasses to the material mixture CO 2 RE®.
CO 2 RE®: What are the components of the innovative plastic?
The composition of the new material is a combination of conventional petroleum-based plastic and renewable raw materials of plant origin. Our ski goggles The STORM and The NOVA already consist of 65% of the bio-plastic mixture CO 2 RE®. We are still testing with our athletes and ski instructors to increase the individual composition every year.
What are the advantages of the new material mixture?
The idea behind the CO 2 RE® material is to use renewable raw materials as the starting point for our sports glasses instead of a conventional petroleum-based plastic. The advantage of renewable resources as a starting material is that, in contrast to petroleum-based plastic, no new CO 2 is released into the atmosphere. This is because plants take the CO 2 out of the air beforehand and use it to grow ( keyword photosynthesis). This is a great advantage, especially when disposing old products (which are often incinerated in waste incineration plants), as no "fresh" CO 2 is emitted into the atmosphere. For this reason, our CO 2 RE® stands for "Carbon-Dioxide Recirculated Material".
How are the raw materials for the material obtained?
In principle, any plant can be used as a starting point for oil production. At NAKED Optics we chose the non-edible castor bean plant because it is a very fast growing and widespread plant species. In the course of photosynthesis, the plant absorbs sunlight, CO2 and H2O and then releases oxygen and starch. The chestnut-like fruits (non-edible) then serve as the starting point for the oil production of the plastic.
You can see the exact process in the graphic below.
