Novol is Building a Cleaner World with Sustainable Rx Lenses

[ACCESSWIRE]

SAN RAMON, CA / ACCESSWIRE / August 11, 2022 / Novol is on the verge of revolutionizing the eyeglass lens industry with the world's first sustainable prescription eyeglass lenses and zero-waste production platform. Made from plant-based materials to replace petroleum, Bioglass and its precision molding process dramatically reduces fossil fuel consumption by up to 80% and eliminates plastic waste, creating the first circular economy for eyewear.

The market for corrective lenses is staggering in size, at over $100B with over 3 billion people worldwide who require vision correction, and nearly 80,000 eyecare providers in the United States alone. Billions of eyeglass lenses are produced each year - and for decades, manufacturers have followed the same wasteful manufacturing process.

Eyeglass manufacturers consume millions of barrels of fossil fuels to create oversized plastic "pucks," then grind and shape the puck into a prescription lens. As a result, they produce hundreds of thousands of metric tons of plastic waste each year that goes into landfills, damaging the environment while raising the production costs - costs that are passed along to the consumer. The amount of waste per lens becomes even more eye-opening when considering the billions of lenses that are produced every year.

Novol has developed a solution that promises to not only clean up the environment, reduce fossil fuel dependency and eliminate waste, but to produce a less expensive and higher quality lens.

Novol's technology is set to transform the entire eyeglass lens industry. Their lenses are mini and micro manufacturable - capable of being produced on a smaller footprint at distribution points to ensure fast turnaround for consumers. After years of research, their precision molding eliminates lens grinding, known as "lens generation" in the industry, leading to fewer resource constraints, including almost 90% less material required to make a lens. Because they are committed to designing a fully sustainable prescription lens, any plastic waste from fitting lenses into frames will be returned to their lab where it is repurposed in future products.

"There are four major attributes when a consumer or doctor selects a lens: optical clarity, weight, thickness and cost, and we rank highest or very high in every measure. And what is compelling for consumers and eyewear retailers is that we eliminate waste, so nothing we produce will go into a landfill and we reduce the dependency on fossil fuels," says Jagdish Jethmalani, co-founder and CTO.

While polycarbonate lenses have the worst optics, in comparison, Bioglass has the best, which means that these new lenses are not only less expensive to produce and better for the environment, they also exhibit a wider, distortion-free field of view.

"Our goal was figuring out how to make a great lens using plant-based material and transform the industry in the process and we were able to do that," says Eric Barberio, founding investor and CEO.

Eyecare professionals agree: "Besides having clear optics, they are lightweight, durable, and thin making them the right choice for consumers and also for eyecare professionals who want the very best for their patients," says Dr. Gary Louie of Family Vision Care in Union City, CA.

The Novol team has over five decades of experience and industry expertise, and after significant investments in research and development, they are preparing to release their revolutionary lenses in the next year. Their work was supported by the National Science Foundation and USDA who have invested $2 million of SBIR funding in the company, and major eyewear and eyecare companies are already interested, with several signing LOI's.

By creating a lens that costs less to produce, is higher quality for consumers, and is good for the environment, Novol has achieved a truly remarkable feat - designing a product that benefits everyone and solves big problems. The next step for their manufacturing platform will be producing Bioglass for eyecare professionals and eyewear retailers, allowing consumers to experience the future of prescription eyeglass lenses for vision correction.

Company Name: Novol

Contact Person: Eric Barberio

Email: [email protected]

Website Link: https://www.novolbio.com/

SOURCE: Novol