Pala eyewear

For every pair of sunglasses sold Pala give back to eye-care programmes in Africa by providing grants to vision centres, dispensaries and screening programmes. To date, thousands of sight-impaired people have had their lives changed and their ability to earn an income enhanced thanks to receiving a pair of prescription glasses.

Pala work alongside a Ghanaian-based NGO to support weaving communities to make our protective sunglasses cases. Woven using traditional methods utilising otherwise wasted plastic, they provide a trade and an income to help them empower themselves whilst upholding tradition (and recycling as we go!).

The recycled material they use could have been many things in a previous life – a plastic bag, a discarded water sachet, plastic used to bind pallets, or even discarded material from the plastic bag making process. This waste is collected, washed, melted and re-purposed into the plastic that is then woven into each case, then labelled by hand with the name of the weaver that created it.

Pala are on a mission to make their designs as sustainable as possible. As each season passes they continue to innovate now offering both recycled acetate and bio-based designs housed in eco-friendly recyclable packaging and with carbon offset shipping.

The factory they work with undergoes a regular third-party ethical trade audit (SMETA) encompassing all aspects of responsible business practice, covering Sedex’s four pillars of Labour, Health and Safety, Environment and Business Ethics to ensure adherence to ethical trading and corporate social responsibility. 

The boxes are FSC MIX certified, from responsible sources and the print materials come from recycled paper stock.

 As a business they also have to fly in elements of the product from around the world so they offset those journeys too by working with not-for-profit Atmosfair to offset all C02 emissions through the financing of Wonderboxes in Nigeria and Rwanda. These incredible cooking pots will retain heat for a very long time, therefore reducing the need to burn fuel for heating and thus also lowering further CO2 emissions.