- Title: Wake up and smell the coffee - from your Ukrainian sunglasses!
- Date: 28th August 2019
- Summary: KIEV REGION, UKRAINE (RECENT) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF HAVRYLENKO USING MACHINE TO POLISH SUNGLASSES FRAME (SOUNDBITE) (Russian) OCHIS COFFEE CEO, MAKSYM HAVRYLENKO, SAYING: "When I told dad for the first time that I would make sunglasses out of coffee, he was like: "Really? Coffee? What are you talking about? It is crap. You will fail. It is nonsense." After a month or two, I brought him the first plates, which were more or less solid. He took one and broke it, saying: "No way! It is crap, forget about it." After half a year, I brought him another sample of sunglasses - sample number 50 or 100 which I cut out of a plate - and he was like: "Hmmm, interesting. You will probably make something out of it." WORKER DOING HAND POLISHING OF SUNGLASSES FRAME SUNGLASSES FRAME ON TABLE HAVRYLENKO TALKING TO WORKER IN WORKSHOP WORKER SHAPING EAR PIECES PILE OF EAR PIECES NEXT TO EQUIPMENT BRANDED EAR PIECES (SOUNDBITE) (Russian) OCHIS COFFEE CEO, MAKSYM HAVRYLENKO, SAYING: "A customer knows that when he puts on glasses and even if he breaks them, it is not the end of the world. He will simply throw them away. He can even bury them in soil and will know that they will not lay there for hundreds of years emitting some harmful elements - phenolic elements like plastic do - but they will fully degrade because they are natural and biodegradable. That's it. And planet will say thank you because, moreover, coffee is a great fertilizer for plants." WORKER ASSEMBLING SUNGLASSES FRAME SUNGLASSES FRAMES ON DISPLAY (SOUNDBITE) (Russian) OCHIS COFFEE CEO, MAKSYM HAVRYLENKO, SAYING: "Our super goal is to promote at least in Ukraine and in the entire world, first, the idea of production of clean products and, second, correct waste disposal. One would say there is no connection between coffee sunglasses and plastic, but these two processes (production of sunglasses and waste disposal) are linked indeed and can supplement each other." KIEV, UKRAINE (RECENT) (REUTERS) MAN WALKING PAST COFFEE STAND BARISTA MAKING COFFEE VARIOUS OF HAVRYLENKO COLLECTING COFFEE GROUNDS FROM COFFEE STAND IT SPECIALIST FROM KIEV, OLEKSIY BONDARENKO, TRYING OCHIS COFFEE SUNGLASSES, SAYING (Russian): "They suit me. They suit me, don't they?" / BONDARENKO TAKING SELFIE WITH HAVRYLENKO / HAVRYLENKO SAYING (Russian): "By the way, I am wearing the same glasses, but from a new collection." COFFEE BEANS (SOUNDBITE) (Russian) IT SPECIALIST FROM KIEV, OLEKSIY BONDARENKO, SAYING: "They even feel different comparing to plastic. I have plastic sunglasses. These ones feel like wood. It is clear that it is not plastic. I won't taste them. It is a cool idea, very cool idea." HAVRYLENKO TALKING TO BONDARENKO, SAYING (Russian): "Just like you said, our idea is to recycle coffee grounds. There are a lot of it in the world. People drink coffee all over the world. And we will produce many sunglasses to replace plastic ones." OCHIS COFFEE SUNGLASSES ON DISPLAY AT COFFEE STAND
- Embargoed: 11th September 2019 10:15
- Keywords: coffee grounds OCHIS COFEE green innovations sustainable fashion eco-friendly Maksym Havrylenko sunglasses eyewear Ukraine plastic waste
- Location: KIEV REGION AND KIEV, UKRAINE
- City: KIEV REGION AND KIEV, UKRAINE
- Country: Ukraine
- Topics: Environment
- Reuters ID: LVA005AU4SRW9
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: EDITORS PLEASE NOTE: SHOT 10 CONTAINS EXPLETIVES
Ukraine's innovative OCHIS COFFEE eyewear brand is getting customers to literally smell the coffee - by making sunglasses out of coffee waste.
Driven by an ambition to create eco-friendly yet fashionable sunglasses, OCHIS COFFEE's CEO Maksym Havrylenko experimented with various herbs like mint, parsley, and cardamom, before he found the right natural material in coffee waste.
Green industries already use coffee waste to produce furniture, cups, printing ink, and biofuel, but Havrylenko is a pioneer in using it to make sunglasses, which smell of the freshly brewed beverage.
"First, coffee is black which is a classic colour of sunglasses which suits everything. Secondly, there are lots of coffee grounds in the world. There are millions of tonnes of coffee grounds in the world," Havrylenko told Reuters.
Havrylenko, who comes from a family of opticians and had 15 years of experience in the eyewear industry, had to dump some 300 samples before creating what he said were perfect OCHIS COFFEE sunglasses that are now available for $78-89.
The main advantage of sunglasses made of coffee grounds and flax glued by vegetable oil is that if disposed, they turn into a fertilizer after 10 years, he said.
OCHIS COFFEE's first fund raising effort on crowdfunding platform Kickstarter raised a bit more than $13,000, surpassing an initial $10,000 target and attracted customers from the United States, western Europe, Japan and Australia. Havrylenko said only 10% of clients were from Ukraine.
"Our super goal is to promote at least in Ukraine and in the entire world, first, the idea of production of clean products and, second, proper waste disposal," he said.
(Production: Serhiy Takhmazov, Margaryta Chornokondratenko) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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