We at NAKED Optics have set ourselves the goal of producing our entire eyewear product range from sustainable bio-based plastics by 2025, without compromising the high quality standards and durability of our products. We as a team love to be out in the nature, whether it be on the mountain, the trails or the water. That is exactly why it is incredibly important to us to make a sustainable contribution and minimise our long term ecological footprint. In the 2021/22 Winter Season (northern hemisphere) we started our goal to convert all our eyewear products to the material blend CO2RE®.
CO2RE®: What is the composition of the innovative plastic?
The composition of the new material is a combination of conventional petroleum-based plastic and renewable raw materials originating from plants. Our ski & snowboard goggles The STORM and The NOVA already consist of 65% of the bio-plastic mixture CO2RE®. We are still testing the products with our athletes and snow sports professionals to increase the material composition every year.
What are the advantages of the new material blend?
The concept behind the CO2RE® material is to use renewable resources as a starting point for our eyewear products instead of a conventional petroleum-based plastic. The advantage of renewable resources as a starting material is that, unlike petroleum-based plastics, no new CO2 is released into the atmosphere. This is due to the fact that plants extract the CO2 from the air and use it to grow, known as photosynthesis. This is especially an advantage when disposing of old products, which are often burned in waste incineration plants, as no "fresh" CO2 is emitted into the atmosphere. For this reason, our CO2RE® stands for "Carbon-Dioxide Recirculated Material".
How are the raw materials for the CO2RE® Material obtained?
Basically, any plant can be used as a starting point for oil extraction. We at NAKED Optics have chosen the non-edible castor bean plant as it is a very fast-growing and widespread species. In the course of photosynthesis, the plant absorbs sunlight, CO2 and H2O and subsequently releases oxygen and starch. The chestnut-like (non-edible) fruits then serve as the starting basis for the oil extraction of our bio-based plastic CO2RE®.
You can see the process in the graphic below.
