FGX to scale up use of Eastman recycled content in eyewear brands

Global eyewear designer and marketer FGX International, headquartered in Smithfield, Rhode Island, has signed a letter of intent with Kingsport, Tennessee-based plastics producer Eastman to reserve what it says is a “significant volume” of Eastman’s Tritan Renew copolyester manufactured at its new methanolysis plant, which will be operational this year.

The agreement builds on FGX’s introduction in January 2022 of frames made from Tritan Renew, a high-performance copolyester made with 50-percent-recycled content derived from Eastman’s molecular recycling technology.

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“We are seeing a rapid adoption of frames made with Tritan Renew from retailers and consumers due to the unique combination of sustainability and performance,” says Salvatore Mauceri, president of the sun and readers division at EssilorLuxottica, which owns FGX.

“We are excited to secure enough material from Eastman’s new plant to significantly and rapidly scale up our production of Tritan Renew as part of our Foster Grant collections and to meet the growing consumer demand for innovative, eco-friendly eyewear,” Mauceri adds.

Eastman announced the construction of its $250 million Kingsport molecular recycling facility in January 2021. When operational, the site will consume more than 100,000 metric tons of end-of-life plastics that cannot be recycled by current mechanical methods. According to the company, it will be the world’s largest material-to-material molecular recycling facility.

The facility employs Eastman’s polyester renewal technology. The process breaks down hard-to-recycle material to its fundamental building blocks and produces new material with high levels of recycled content and, the company says, no compromise on quality.

The commitment to scale up the production of frames make with Tritan Renew makes FGX the first in the eyewear industry to leverage output from the new Kingsport facility.

“We are proud to expand our partnership with FGX,” says Glenn Goldman, commercial director of Eastman’s plastics division. “With this commitment, FGX is once again demonstrating its leadership on sustainability and we are excited to work with them to scale up their use of Tritan Renew as our new molecular recycling facility becomes operational.”