If you’re trying to avoid plastic and like sustainable fashion, then you’ve probably been taking a closer look at what your sunglasses are made of. And if they’re high quality, you might see the word “acetate.”   Acetate is used by eyewear companies because it’s a high-quality, beautifully glossy and transparent material with just the right amount of bend. You can even bring a pair of acetate frames to your local optician and they will gently bend them to fit your face better. You can’t do that with plastic.   You’ll find acetate in many conscious sunglasses brands – even ones that started out with other sustainable materials have incorporated acetate into their offerings. There’s cotton-based acetate in Proof eyewear, while Solo, Shwood, and Sticks & Sparrow have acetate/wood/bamboo combos. Dick Moby has recycled or bio-based acetate glasses. Modo says their Eco line is made from 63% renewable non-food oil, which is vague, but it might be acetate as well.   In fact, a lot of “sustainable” sunglass companies spend a lot of time crowing about their bamboo and then gloss right over the acetate part. Nothing to see here! Look over there! Trees! A charity program!   So, what is this mysterious acetate? How is it made? And will it biodegrade if it falls off your head into the ocean while you’re sailing? I myself had actually been confused about these questions for years, but I dug in to finally get some answers. What I found shocked me.  

What Is Acetate and How Is It Made?

  So what is acetate? It’s a cellulosic material, which makes it a close cousin to rayon viscose (which I’ve also done an explainer on – you should consider reading it if you haven’t yet and then come back to this). That means that it’s a semi-synthetic material. The base material is from plants (mostly tree pulp). It is processed in an industrial facility using a cocktail of acids to form a powder and then a melted goo that is either stretched into threads for fabric, formed into those squishy little filters that are found in cigarette butts, or molded into a plastic-like substance that can be formed into glasses frames.   Is acetate manufacturing polluting? Well, there’s even less information available about the toxicity of manufacturing acetate than there is for viscose, which is not a lot.   But there is this: all three ingredients– acetic acid, acetic anhydride, and sulfuric acid – needed for this process are highly corrosive and dangerous substances that can cause serious health problems if they come into contact with skin, are ingested, or are inhaled. Plus, some manufacturers add plasticizers, which can include the dreaded toxic phthalates.   It stands to reason if the acetate is made in a poorly regulated facility (say, in Asia) then the workers exposed to these fumes will suffer long-term health effects, and the waste, if dumped without purification, is toxic to marine life and the environment in general. But we just don’t know for sure, because to my knowledge, no watchdog group has picked up on this issue yet and done any sort of report.   If the acetate is expressly bio-acetate (plasticizer-free) and manufactured in a regulated environment (for example, Italy, under the European Union’s strict REACH chemical guidelines), then you can be fairly confident that the workers wear protective clothing, and there are proper ventilation systems and waste treatment set up.   The best manufacturer in this regard seems to be Mazzucchelli, in Italy. They also own acetate factories in China, and I want to assume that they manage those factories equally well. Check out the acetate manufacturing video they made:   I dug around websites and emailed all the sunglasses companies that market themselves as sustainable but don’t say anything about their acetate sourcing. One sustainable sunglasses company told me that their acetate is manufactured in the U.S., which would be great, except I couldn’t find any evidence of a U.S. acetate manufacturer, and then they said it’s assembled in China, and asked me not to tell you that. (That is shady AF! Definitely not promoting them to you.) Proof Eyewear sent me their code of conduct and said that they visit their Chinese frames manufacturer, but that their acetate is sourced from a variety of Chinese manufacturers. Sticks and Sparrow, Modo, and Solo all didn’t answer my emailed questions by press time.   When I emailed Pala, a sunglasses company that has a give-back program that funds eye care projects in Africa and sends you your glasses in a handmade pouch made from recycled plastic, they told me that their glasses are cut and molded in a SMETA-audited factory in China, with acetate from this factory. I have to give them props for being transparent with me. Even better, starting next month they will offer a style made from pre-consumer recycled acetate sourced from a Mazzucchelli-owned factory in China. In 2019, they will offer bio-acetate styles as well, mostly likely from Mazzucchelli’s Italian factory. [Update: the collection is now available!]   Dick Moby does the very best job in this respect, with a video of the whole process in the Italian factory of Mazzucchelli from cellulose powder to final product. (Watch the whole video; the final line made me LOL.) Some of their black acetate is even pre-consumer recycled acetate from the cutting floor of the factory. Article One, Shwood, and Finlay & Co. all share on their website that their acetate factory is Mazzucchelli as well.   So here’s a roundup of my favorite acetate pairs from the above honest sunglasses brands: