Bio + recycled materials

We work with some of the world’s most respected acetate makers, selecting materials for their quality, longevity, and lower impact on the planet.

Our bio-based acetates are made from renewable wood and cotton fibres, combined with a plant-based plasticiser. They have a high natural carbon content and are designed to break down more easily than conventional plastics, meeting recognised compostability standards.

Our recycled acetates are made from offcuts that would otherwise go to waste — sorted, reprocessed, and transformed into new, richly coloured sheets ready to be crafted into frames.

Every pair is built to last, made to be worn and enjoyed for years.

Recycled leather case

We looked far and wide to source the best possible material for our protective cases and found ourselves in a predicament. How could we offer a hard wearing, stylish protective case, whilst using an ecologically sound material and efficient production methods? The answer came after stumbling across a boutique bag maker in Spain, who manufactures bags from recycled leather and natural latex materials. Together we now produce all our cases at their boutique studio in Madrid.
The leather we use is also Oeko Tex, and Global Recycling Standard certified.

*If we are out of stock, our recycled leather cases be substituted with a premium New Zealand leather pouch (also made in New Zealand).

Trade in / upcycle

If you already own a pair of our sunnies, and want to upgrade your style, or just want to refresh, fill out the form below and we’ll follow up with how to get the ball rolling. We will then try to recycle, up-cycle, or donate your old frames. In exchange you'll get a discount off your next purchase.

Send us your old IOE product, with your contact details, and we'll get send you a one-off code to use on your next purchase*.

Trade in form
*View 'Trade In Initiative' T&C's

Affordable repairs initiative

Because life happens. Sunnies get sat on, dropped, left in the car and inevitably scratches, scuffs and bends happen. We don’t believe in discarding an otherwise perfectly good pair of sunnies, so if they're are looking worse for wear, we will arrange to fix them for you.

Simply send them to us with a note detailing the issue, and we will send them right back once we’ve replaced your lenses, buffed your scratch, tightened the frames, etc**

**View 'Repair Initiative' T&C's 

Clean the coast

Litter is a major risk to New Zealand's people, culture, environment and economy, especially when it enters the marine environment. Isle of Eden has decided to support Sustainable Coastlines in cleaning up the coastlines of Aotearoa, in a mission to create a beautiful litter-free beaches and prevent plastic from entering the environment.

For each pair of sunglasses sold, Isle of Eden / you will help Sustainable Coastlines to remove litter, predominately plastic, from the NZ coastlines through their Love your Coast programme.

Plastic pollution to farm fences

Due to the fragile nature of eyewear, we currently utilise some single use plastics to help protect our products while in transit.

Soft plastics are much more difficult to recycle that regular recyclable plastics which means there’s not many options other than to send it to landfill. Fortunately we were able to find a solution to our single use plastic waste in the form of Future Post.

Future Post is an innovative Kiwi company that up-cycles soft plastics into fence posts for farms and garden boxes.
All our soft plastics are collected, bundled and delivered to Future Post on a regular basis. 

Read more about the comapny here

Lenses

Our lenses are currently made with CR-39 plastic monomer which is lighter than glass, less likely to shatter, and is very close in terms of optical quality. However this means that our lenses are not as earth-friendly as we'd like them to be. We are always looking for a better, more environmentially friendly option that will also meet our standard for optical clarity. As soon as we're able to source a more suitable option, we'll jump on it. This is on the cards for 2023.

Metal components

We salvage and re-use metal components in repairs where possible. However, we are currently utilising our manufacturers own brand of hinges, screws, inner cores, and metal end caps which are more difficult to trace.
Due to the environmental impact of mining metals, we will be looking to switch to parts supplier that utilises traceable metals to ensure that they are from sustainable sources.