Eye Spy Green

The “Company Profile” is an Earth911.com series highlighting consumer goods and services making a difference through product stewardship and recycling. Products and services featured do not pay for placement and are not endorsed by Earth911.com.

Millions of people rely on store-bought reading glasses for their vision needs. If you’ve ever walked by one of those kiosks at a department store, then you know that while they may be functional, style is sometimes lacking in these generic readers.

ICU Eyewear has broken that stereotype and set the bar high with a new line of 19 different eco-friendly frames for both readers and sunglasses. This new line of environmentally chic frames includes the use of sustainable bamboo, reclaimed plastic and recycled metal.

In order to learn more about ICU Eyewear’s “far-sighted” eco-friendly products, we spoke with Rose Kesten, director of marketing.

A Decade of Service

ICU Eyewear was formed in 1998, and earth-friendly business practices have been central to the company’s growth from the start. In 2005, ICU Eyewear became the first and only company in the reading glass industry to offer eco-friendly reading glasses, sun readers and sunglasses.

Reading glasses are typically made from plastic, and ICU Eyewear focused on reducing the amount of plastic used in the manufacturing process. Some of their most popular styles are made from reclaimed plastic. By using reclaimed materials, ICU Eyewear puts waste to use that would otherwise be landfilled.

Eyewear Innovation

Kesten said that, “Innovation has been the key factor in the eyewear industry in order to offer a more environmentally friendly alternative to the traditional plastic reading glass.” ICU Eyewear has become an industry leader by developing processes to use reclaimed plastic, recycled metal and sustainable bamboo in order to reduce the impact their product has on the planet.

ICU Eyewear offers a recycling program where their customers can send back used or broken reading glasses. The company then donates the reading glasses that are still in good condition to those in need and tries to recycle the plastic from the glasses that cannot be reused. “By offering this program to the public, we have been able to donate tens of thousands of reading glasses to impoverished communities around the world,” says Kesten.

What’s Happening Next

“The most exciting part of our company is the continual research and quest for innovation,” states Kesten. “One of our favorite things about the reading glass industry is that we are not only fulfilling a need for people who find reading glasses a necessity, but also offering them an eco-friendly, fashion-forward alternative.”

The main goals of ICU Eyewear include expansion and the continuation of offering fun products to their customers. “We have been fortunate to gain a reputation as a stylish alternative to the classic drugstore readers, and we hope to solidify this standing by including new materials, designs, colors and patterns into our upcoming collections,” she said.

Favorite of the Three R’s

According to Kesten, “Reduction in consumption is an absolute necessity. For products that must be consumed, it is important to reuse and recycle as much as possible in order to lessen our impact on the environment. If everyone incorporated the three R’s into their everyday life, we would be living in a more sustainable world.”