Impact of Our Sunglasses | Without® | Spherical with Real Social Impact

YOU ARE WEARING CHANGE!

Thank you for buying the world’s first recycled sunglasses made from “impossible-to-recycle” plastic packets of chips. These shades were assembled ethically and sustainably in Pune, India.

Here’s why these are the most sustainable sunglasses you’ll ever own,
both environmentally and socially:

~5 PACKETS OF CHIPS

1 rSUNGLASSES

Lifecycle Analysis of
1 Without Sunglasses Frame vs 1 Conventional Frame

IT’S THE WORST KIND OF PLASTIC WASTE

Not just packets of chips, but we recycle all kinds of post-consumer “impossible-to-recycle” multi-layered plastic packaging (MLP) – think chocolate wrappers, milk packets, essentially any flexible packaging.

Globally, less than 1% of this is recycled and it makes up 80% of all leakages into the ocean. It contains 3-5 different types of materials, is voluminous and inconsistent, and it all just ends up in landfills and oceans. It’s the worst.
But we’ve found a way, and you’ve now helped out.

Here are few of the former wastepickers / informal workers who helped make your sunglasses:

JAYASHRI

Jayshri is the first informal worker we employed at Ashaya. Her monthly income has increased 3x after she started working here. She also has a salaried working bank account now where her monthly salary gets deposited.

Her husband ran away many years ago, and she now supports her daughter who’s in school, and her mother.

At Without, she helps with shredding, washing and early processing of waste.

RANI

Rani, a single mother of three, began working at Ashaya in October 2022, before which she was an independent waste picker. After joining Ashaya, her hourly wage has increased by 2.25x and she now gets more time with her kids in the morning.

She is the sole earning member of the family after her husband’s death in 2016.

At Without, she’s also helps with shredding, washing and early processing of waste, along with polishing and post processing of our products.

They all have employee agreements / contracts here at Without, just like any other colleague. We just add an appendix that contains a Hindi translation. Most of them can’t really read, but their kids can. They don’t have email addresses, so we give them printed copies of their monthly payslips.

And this is just the beginning of our social impact, we still have a long way to go.

Your waste was sourced from the

Kashtachi Kamai Scrapshop in the Nana Peth area in Pimpri, Pune, India.

There are about 12-14 ladies who collectively own this scrapshop. They are a part of the wastepicker collectives KKPKP & SWaCH Cooperative where the ladies owning the scrapshop decide how profits get spent. They elect their leaders and look out for each other. They collect their waste both from the streets and from larger corporations.

They collect MLP or packets of chips just for us, because no one else buys it from them. We, on the other hand, pay them a premium for it.

And to go the extra mile, we:

• Use sustainable and plastic-free packaging made by Corugami.

• Neutralize the carbon footprint of our delivery with Farmers For Forests.

• Our upcycled, extracted materials which make your sunglasses are easily recyclable by conventional recyclers, making it genuinely circular.

We are truly impact-first with wastepickers at the heart of our work.  We have even legally amended our MOAs to bind us to our impact.

So, when you wear these products, you’re not just wearing stuff,
You’re Wearing Change.  

Wear them without any worries, as we build a world without waste.