Spectacle frames are a product worn close to the body and in regular contact with the skin, and yet there is almost no information about the materials used in its manufacture available to optical practices, let alone to the end consumer.
There can be a complicated supply chain in the manufacture of frames that is very difficult to unpick. The ecological impact of frame manufacture and some of the ethical issues are often overlooked when choosing what products to stock.
I believe that if we are selling a product then we are effectively endorsing it and so we need to be more aware of the ethical issues involved in its manufacture. This article aims to do just that.
The manufacture of spectacle frames in the UK was once a healthy, profitable industry but the competition to drive prices lower meant that the UK could not compete. Now there are no large-scale factories left in the UK and what remains are niche producers of specialist frames. There is now a fairly convoluted supply chain to get from the raw materials to the completed spectacle frame on our display stands. This frame will likely be displayed with only very basic information about where it was made, in what conditions and what it is made from.
The supply chain
Long gone are the days when opticians fashioned frames in the backrooms of their own practices. The constant pressure to drive down prices has meant that each part of the frame may now come from a different country and from a factory specialised in making that one part.
Practices generally buy frames from distributors, who themselves buy from frame design companies. These companies in turn generally buy their product from factories that source the raw material from producers.
It can be difficult to trace a frame back to the original producer because the distributors do not always have direct contact with the factories. Often, the frame companies will have a portfolio that includes product from many different manufacturing factories reflecting the complex nature of the supply chain.
The supply chain can get more convoluted still when different manufacturers are making different parts of the frame. So, for example, the front of the frame may be made in a different place to the hinges or the nose pads. The component parts of that frame may then be assembled in a separate factory. This obviously increases the amount of travel or frame miles the product has undergone before it reaches the consumer.
It also highlights one of the issues in frame manufacture. Spectacle frames are generally marked as being made in a particular country. However, to legally display that tag only the most expensive part of production has to have been completed in that country. The component parts could have been made anywhere and only put together in that specific country.
Some of the larger frame companies will control their own factories. Frames are manufactured in places such as China, South Korea, France, Brazil, India, Japan, Germany, Italy and the US. Each factory is governed by its own standards and local regulation.
It is very rare for us as optometrists and dispensing opticians to be confident of the standards of factories in which the spectacles are made because we are too far removed from the manufacture.
The materials
As with any industry, optics has had its fair share of what we would now call unethical materials. The term tortoiseshell to describe the colour of some frames is a throwback to the days when the natural product was used to make spectacle frames. This tortoiseshell was not from a tortoise but a Hawksbill sea turtle. It remains classified as critically endangered by the World Conservation Union and it is now illegal to sell products derived from its shell.
There are a still few spectacle frames still made from natural materials such as horn or wood. The horn used is generally from the water buffalo and is a byproduct of the meat industry. While some may not like the exploitation of animals bred for meat, it does ensure that no part of the animal goes to waste. Horn that is not used for other industries ends up in landfill. Wood spectacle frames are a specialist product and most of the frames available on the market are produced using FSC approved timber.
[CaptionComponent="2382"]The vast majority of spectacle frames on the UK market are made from man-made materials or derivatives. The industry has evolved to demand a cheap, light, strong material and is constantly looking at alternatives.
Plastic frames can be made from many different composite materials. A more expensive and ethical choice for molded frames is cellulose acetate. This is a natural based plastic made from a source of plant cellulose (usually cotton or wood pulp.) Pure cellulose acetate is biodegradable and compostable. However, it is virtually impossible to find out where the cellulose was sourced and whether it has been harvested in a sustainable way.
There are some ecologically minded companies producing frames. For example, Zeal Optics use a plastic derived from caster seed oil. Zeal is able to trace its product back to the castor farms and remains one of the few frame companies able to trace its product back to the original raw material.
Other plastic materials sometimes used include nylon, carbon fibre or polycarbonate. Cheaper and less ecologically friendly plastic frames are made from petroleum based plastic. It is impossible to tell the difference between this material and cellulose acetate by looking at it, although some people say that the petroleum-based plastic has a greasier feel to it.
Metal frames consist of a cheap base metal plated with a more expensive and better looking metal. Cheaper metal frames are commonly made from nickel and copper-nickel alloys. These can range in nickel content from 12% to 68% depending on the alloy. They are often coated in an attempt to stop the nickel touching the skin and causing irritation.
More expensive metal frames may be made from stainless steel, aluminium, titanium or gold. Titanium is often classed as one of the more ecologically friendly materials because in developed countries there are stringent regulations in how the mines operate. But it is very difficult to find out from frame companies where their titanium has been mined.
Plastic and metal frames also include chemical additives such as dyes, glues, UV inhibitors, lacquer and mould inhibitors. None of this chemical information is offered to buyers of the frames and many frame companies do not know the full make-up of their frames because they have never been asked the question.
[CaptionComponent="2383"]Recycling
It is not currently possible to recycle old spectacle frames in household recycling in the UK.
There are schemes in which consumers donate unwanted prescription glasses to deprived areas of the world. Charities collect unwanted glasses, measure them and deliver them to areas that need them. While this is to be applauded there is some evidence that this is not a financially viable solution to the lack of prescription eyewear around the world.
None of the charities that collect spectacles accept broken frames or progressive lenses. A study from Australia in 2012 found that only one in 15 of donated glasses are actually used by the charity. The same study found that the cost involved to measure, sort and transport the frame to a deprived country was actually more than the cost of manufacturing a completely new frame. This left the authors of the study to conclude that donating spectacle frames to charity was a ‘feel good waste of money’.
Most frames in the UK will end up in landfill. No UK frame company currently has any scheme to recycle any parts of its product.
The way forward
There are practical things that we can do.
In my practice, I developed a questionnaire to give to my suppliers that gave me some idea about how ethical their product was. The questions were based upon some of the ethical issues of frame manufacture. I use the answers to grade my suppliers with an ethical score. This information is available to patients when they are choosing frames.
Suppliers find it difficult to answer this questionnaire, and some ignore it. This reflects some of the apathy to the topic. Ethical issues may be consumer driven and until now it remains a very niche concern to our patients.
It is an area that I believe we should be more aware of and the only way to do that is to start asking for more information from our suppliers.
The questionnaire I use is freely available to download from my practice website (www.simonberry.co.uk/ethical-sourcing).
Simon Berry is an optometrist from Durham. He opened his own independent practice in 2002 and splits his time between the practice, working as a specialist optometrist at Sunderland Eye Infirmary and various research projects with Durham University.
If you have ethical sourcing tips to share, write to editor@markallengroup.com