Cleanzine: your weekly cleaning and hygiene industry newsletter 25th April 2024 Issue no. 1111
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I was talking to a woman at the weekend about recycling and she said that since everything we use comes from the earth, we should really be able to safely return it to the earth - albeit perhaps in a different form. She feels we should be thinking differently about the way we might be damaging the planet and I agreed that she has a point. We both felt that it's the way we so carelessly discard things we've used that's causing many of the problems.
We went on to discuss the many products made from recycled plastics and she proudly told me about her new blankets. She was dismayed when I told her about the fibres leaching into the washing machine - and thus our waterways - during the laundry process, so she won't be buying more!
She was interested in learning about my loft insulation which is still going strong several years after installation. If you missed the leader in which I wrote about it, the product - made from 100% recycled plastic bottles - cost roughly the same as conventional insulation yet has a higher thermal value and doesn't require the use of goggles or protective clothing and gloves during fitting.
Sunglasses made from recycled materials that come with a lifetime warranty were new to me and when they're funded by a Kickstarter campaign that reaches its target within 24-hours, you know the manufacturer is onto something good.
Avalon sunglasses are produced in ISO9000, ISO14000 and SEDEX-certified factories from high-quality recycled materials. The frames are of Italian recycled polycarbonate - an ultra-lightweight material that's tough but flexible and which resists impact and high temperatures. The scratch-resistant lenses, produced from German TAC, are polarized category-3 UV400. But it's not just the product that's so eco-friendly - all the packaging and cleaning cloths are made from recycled materials too, in a low-energy process.
And now comes the really good bit... For every backer in the Kickstarter campaign, Avalon collects one Kilo of plastic from the ocean and for each pair of sunglasses produced, it will be recycling one plastic bottle. The glasses come in four styles and four colourways and you can see them at:
And when you consider all the plastics we thought we'd seen the last of, coming back to us from Malaysia, we'd do well to find more ways of making something useful from the stuff!
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Yours,
30th May 2019