One of the main goals of the European project Circular Design – Learning for Innovative Design for Sustainability is to inspire designers, businesses and design students in the process of developing more sustainable products and services.
In order to reach this objective, one of the key outcomes of the project is the Best Practice Publication in Circular Design, a fine selection of case studies, best practices and products that will help us to understand the critical role of design to minimise the environmental impact of consumption, reduce the use of resources and rethink the way our societies work.
The first case study of this publication, led by the design studio Nutcreatives in collaboration with the other partners that integrate the Circular Design project, is Sea2See, a change agent in the eyewear industry that is determined to face a very serious threat for our environment: the islands of waste created by the fishing nets thrown away in the ocean that trap hundreds of thousands of sea mammals and fish. Plastic is also ingested by aquatic animals, such as sea turtles, who mistake it for viable food. They have become a huge environmental problem in our oceans.
Sea2see is a company based in Barcelona that produces sustainable eyewear made 100% with recycled fishing nets collected in collaboration with fishermen. One of their main goals is to create awareness about ocean contamination and prove that circular economy in the fashion industry is possible.
Their biggest innovation is the creation of a complex network of very different actors and organizations that allows to recycle something that was not being recycled before and has a high environmental impact like fishing nets, getting as a result a product with a big added value as are the glasses. With no doubt, Sea2see is an example that demonstrates that every sector can be an agent of change for circular economy. Further information about the case study: Sea2See
Sea2See is the first of twelve best practices to be released over the next months. The Best Practice Publication in Circular Design will be completed with case studies within sectors like technology, furniture, clothing, lighting or packaging, to demonstrate that circular design strategies can be applied to improve the efficiency of almost every system.
