Summary

Ochis creates fashionable eyeglass frames for prescription glasses and sunglasses from upcycled coffee. The company works with cafes in Ukraine that are still providing essential services to customers during the Ukrainian conflict and obtains spent coffee grounds from them. The used coffee grounds are combined with natural oils to form a new plant-based material that is waterproof, has a matte texture and retains the aroma of coffee! Its production does not involve any CO₂ emissions and aims to reduce the carbon footprint by using locally sourced materials for its coffee-based glasses and cases. By mixing the grounds with flax and a vegetable oil-based biopolymer, the company has created a material that degrades 100 times faster than standard plastic glasses, according to the company. (Source) The final product has adjustable temples and is suitable for installing both optical and sun-protective lenses. After use, the frames can be home composted.

Story

Founder Maksym Havrylenko grew up in a family of opticians and has over 15 years of experience in the eyewear industry. He wanted to create a new type of material that was natural and zeroed in on coffee grounds that are plentiful since coffee is such a popular drink around the world. Thus, Ochis was born. After a successful Kickstarter campaign, the brand finally started growing, opened up its own production site and started improving the technology behind the coffee glasses.

Pic Credit: Sprudge (right) and Inhabitat (top)