How We Found the Perfect Material for Our Frames

When we started Isla Sunwear and began researching materials for our frames, we knew we wanted to stay far away from injected plastics.

This is an unsustainable, lightweight material that gets used a lot because of its cost-effectiveness. Injected plastics are very energy-intensive to produce and heavily rely on fossil fuels.

Not only was the unsustainable nature of this plastic a reason for us not to use it, but also the fact that frames made from injected plastic are very weak and simply don’t last very long.

That’s when we discovered cellulose acetate.

This is a natural material made from renewable sources, such as cotton or wood pulp. It’s also much stronger, more flexible, and has a good weight to it, which makes it feel more premium.

We took a deeper dive into acetate, weighed the pros and cons, and knew this was the direction we wanted to go for our frames.

Acetate is also hypoallergenic, meaning it doesn’t react to your skin the way standard plastics can.

While acetate has many benefits, it’s still not perfect. Fossil fuels are still used in the process of making acetate sheets to “plasticize” the material so it can be shaped into sunglasses frames.

When discussing these options with our manufacturer, they proposed the idea of using bio-acetate.

Both regular acetate and bio-acetate come from natural origins, but bio-acetate is made using bio-based plasticizers, making it a more sustainable option for creating our frames.

Bio-acetate is biodegradable due to its natural origins and the absence of synthetic materials, resulting in a lower carbon footprint.

At the moment, our partner factory doesn’t offer bio-acetate in every color yet. This means that our tortoise colors are made from bio-acetate, while our other colors are made from regular acetate.

So if you want to choose the more sustainable option, tortoise is the way to go 🐢

We’re working hard to eventually produce every color in bio-acetate. As a small business, it feels great to take the more sustainable route.

Sustainability doesn’t stop at our frames: all of our packaging is FSC-certified, and our cleaning cloths are made from recycled plastic bottles.

With every pair of Isla sunglasses, you’re joining us in making a real difference.