menu-icon
Scandinavian
MIND
search-icon
Innovations For Better Living
Patented technology can turn the eyewear industry circular
Every year, three billion pairs of glasses are sold all over the world, so the impact that the Swedish innovation Regrind can have is, almost, hard to comprehend.
By JOHAN MAGNUSSON
8 Sep 2021

Every year, about three billion pairs of glasses are sold all over the world. The average lifetime for a pair is just a couple of years. As you get yourself new ones, the old ones usually end up in a drawer or — in the best case — they are sent as charity to someone in need. Which is great, but unfortunately not too common. Sooner or later, they simply end up in the trash. 

This is where Regrind steps in. Initiated by Swedish EOE Eyewear, it’s a world unique concept transforming old eyewear into new eyewear, with a recycling rate of an impressive 98 %. Hence, it means a decrease in virgin material within the branch, saving a lot of CO2 emissions and also making EOE circular. 

— It can separate different types of eyewear and different types of material, such as acetate, steel, and titanium, and make the fragments so pure that they can go back into production to make new eyewear out of the old eyewear, shares Josefin Gustafsson, communications manager.

How does Regrind contribute to better living?

— All circularity contributes to better living for each and every one of us. We hope that Regrind could close the loop within the eyewear industry, using only materials that already exist instead of producing new ones. 

The patented machine and technology are EOE Eyewear’s own. However, they also use it to produce other companies’ own ranges of eyewear, helping an entire industry becoming circular. One step at a time.

This is #3 on our list with 25 Innovations for better living from Scandinavian MIND Issue 2

1. Here’s the first furniture brand to publish their climate footprint
2. Unique Bio2 textile can make a change in our polluted world
4. Filtration technology saves you from hidden pollution at home
5. This Swedish collective launches line with skincare for objects
6. Powder to liquid wash can change personal care as we know it
7. This household product line cleans with all-natural sugar surfactants
8. Spinnova’s textile fibre might be the world’s most groundbreaking
9. Here’s how AI can be used to create your ultimate personal scent
10. Design brand Verk takes local production one — big — step further