Recycling: Taking back from the sea

In recent years the environmental problems caused by plastic waste in the natural world have gained mainstream recognition. Damage to marine ecosystems have been particularly high profile with striking videos and images demonstrating the scale of the pollution helping to drive a shift in public awareness and opinion.

Given this situation, it seems likely that the vast majority of optical practices in the UK would find customers interested in Sea2See, a company that reclaims plastic waste from the oceans to make optical frames and sunglasses.

‘It started at the end of 2016,’ says Francois van den Abeele, founder of Sea2See. ‘Before that I had no background in optics but I spent a lot of time in Sub-Saharan Africa working on social causes and witnessed the problems of waste, recycling and contamination. I also used to work as a ship broker in the past and, living by the sea, I saw what was happening first hand. I wanted to play a part in helping to combat it.’