Ochis Coffee Glasses
A Ukrainian start-up called Ochis has developed a range called Ochis Coffee- where glasses frames are made from coffee grounds.
The majority of glasses and sunglasses are still made from petroleum-based plastic. Ochis Coffee comes with a new sustainable alternative: a frame made from coffee grounds: the mulchy coffee bean byproduct that usually gets thrown away before your drink has cooled.
The grounds are mixed with flax and a biopolymer based on vegetable oil before being moulded into a brick shape. The frames are then cut using a computer.
Ochis glasses frames biodegrade 100 times faster than standard plastic glasses. They also transform into a natural fertilizer for new plants if you put them in water or soil.
The founder and CEO of Ochis Coffee, Maksym Havrylenko, has 15 years experience in the eyewear industry, with the business having run in his family.
“I grew up in a family of opticians and I have been helping my parents since I was a kid. That is why I know almost everything about glasses.”
“I wanted to create something new and natural. So we started our search for a perfect material that can be recycled. Coffee was that perfect one because it is a very popular drink. People consume 2.5 million cups of coffee per day all over the world,” he says
Ochis Coffee Frames
Green conscious industries have already used coffee waste to produce furniture, cups, printing ink, and biofuel, but Havrylenko is unique in using it to make sunglasses.
Havrylenko is driven by an ambition to create eco-friendly, yet fashionable sunglasses. He experimented with various herbs like mint, parsley, and cardamom before he found the right natural material in coffee waste.
“I always wanted to create something really useful and now, in the epoch of a coming ecological disaster because of the great quantity of plastic waste all over the world, I finally feel that I am on the right way,” he says.
“Since I was 16, I have been actively studying and developing our family business.”
“I created a few websites and we started to purchase the glasses throughout the country and a little bit later I created the first glasses repair service in Ukraine.”
“Tens of thousands of glasses went through our hands and it helped to realize all the disadvantages of the plastic frames. There was a necessity to create an alternative,” he adds.
Ochis Coffee’s first fund raising effort on the crowdfunding platform Kickstarter raised just over $13,000, surpassing an initial $10,000 target and attracted customers from the United States, western Europe, Japan and Australia. Havrylenko said only 10% of clients were from Ukraine.
What is the hope for and future of Ochis Coffee? Harvylenko is hoping to expand his brand worldwide.
“The global aim of our team is to establish a full-scale production of the innovative goods made from raw materials to replace the out dated technologies of harmful plastic production.”
“Now we are at the start-up phase but we already have small series production. Our goal is to produce 10,000 pairs till 2020. We are planning to produce 100,000 pairs till 2021 and increase our production at least 10 times more.”
“Also, we are planning to extend our distribution network all over the world, selling our products in coffee shops and optics,” he says.
The glasses cost between $78 and $89.
