Photo Cred: w.r.yuma

I’ve been meaning to start a new series called “Trash Talkin’ on Tuesday,” where I insult my readers (all 2 of you), and in turn you come back with the quickest “Yo Mama” joke. Whoever has the best comeba…I’m kidding of course. But that might be fun.

Really the idea being that every Tuesday I talk about trash — whether it be plastic, garment waste, tires, you name it (I know, “Yo Mama” jokes was probably a better idea), and then highlight a company that is either doing something to curb said trash or upcycling/recycling it and making it into something super cool. Not a far cry from what I usually do, just a little bit more focused with a cool name.

So, without further ado, let’s begin.

In case you didn’t know, we have a plastic problem. Obviously we use plastic all the time in our everyday lives. Unfortunately, that is one of the problems. Some estimates put plastic use at nearly 300 million tons each year. And according to the Plastic Pollution Coalition, Americans alone discard more than 30 million tons of plastic a year, with only 8% of it getting recycled. The rest ends up in landfills, becomes litter or is burned. And all that plastic that doesn’t get recycled, well it also never goes away — it just breaks down into smaller and smaller pieces.

Photo Cred: w.r.yuma

So to break it down, here are just a few of the problems with plastic pollution:

1) It’s ugly, and ain’t nobody got time for that.

2) It clogs our oceans and waterways. It is estimated that by 2050 the oceans will contain more plastic than fish by weight.

3) It kills and injures birds and marine life. According to the Center for Biological Diversity, thousands of seabirds, sea turtles, seals and other marine mammals are killed each year after ingesting plastic or getting entangled in it.

4) Because plastic doesn’t go away, but instead breaks down into smaller pieces, it becomes much easier for animals to ingest it and thus it can poison our food chain if we eat contaminated fish.

Photo Cred: w.r.yuma

That’s just a small sampling of the issues, I’ll save the rest for another day. But luckily for us all, w.r.yuma is doing something to help — they’re turning some of that plastic into premium sunglasses. Launching this summer, the company believes that quality, style and sustainability are all one in the same. Which is why they will be 3D printing awesome sunglasses using recycled car dashboards and soda bottles.

It’s great that they have found a way to reuse some of our plastics, but even better that they will be 3D printing every pair because they will be using only the exact amount of material they need — no additional waste. And to top that off, they will also be using bamboo waste from furniture to make additional styles.

Sign up for their pre-registration list here.