Flint water bottles become Genusee eyeglass frames

Janea Wilson | Special to the Free Press

In January 2016, Michigan native Ali VanOverbeke, 28, returned home from working as a designer for a clothing company in New York City to volunteer with the Red Cross to help with the Flint water crisis. Every day, she delivered cases and cases of bottled water.

“One of the first things that came to mind was, ‘What the heck is happening to all this plastic?’” after the bottles were empty, said VanOverbeke. Her solution to the plastic waste was to create Genusee, a company that makes glasses frames out of recycled water bottles based in Flint.

VanOverbeke started the company with Jack Burns, 33, whom she met while studying at Parsons School of Design in Greenwich Village.

“We worked in a fellowship together after graduation and we realized that we work really great together,” VanOverbeke said. “At that time, we were both exploring how to use design to redesign systems and address issues of disability that we have seen.”

For months, the two brainstormed ways to combat this problem.

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“Originally we had looked at everything from toothbrushes to sweaters,” said Burns, who is a professor at Parsons. “We had a full range of products we could make with the material, but that was one that really resonated with us.”

Burns said that since glasses are a fashion product and medical device, they create less waste than other potential products.

Each pair of glasses is made from 15 plastic water bottles that are sourced from two companies that collect bottles for Flint. The companies cleaned the bottles and sold them to a processor that catalyzed the plastic into pellets. Those pellets are then molded into the glasses frames. Genusee makes the frames and partners with a lab that makes lenses according to prescriptions.

Genusee is addressing an economic issue as well.

“We didn’t go into this with the intention of starting a business,” Burns said. “We just wanted to utilize the materials, help the community, build something different.”

VanOverbeke and Burns wanted to create jobs in Flint.

“We needed to actually start a business of a large scale and address the issues of plastic waste and also bring in a new manufacturing legacy and create living-wage jobs that anyone could do,” said VanOverbeke.

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In January 2017 they applied for the Elaine Gold Launch Pad program, an accelerated counseling program that is part of the Council of Fashion Designers of America. That grant money allowed them to start prototype production of the glasses. They also raised more than $74,000 with a Kickstarter in April. That money allowed Genusee to finalize its frame design.

The first frame, called the Roeper, named after VanOverbeke’s high school, was created to fit as many faces as possible.

“We took pictures of a bunch of different friends' faces and were literally just drawing on frames,” VanOverbeke said. “As we fit the prototype on more people, we just continue to get better and better feedback and that’s what we’re looking for.”

Through the Kickstarter, 800 orders were placed and shipping is expected to begin Dec. 1. Genusee is planning on hiring its first employee this summer to help assemble the glasses and work out shipping logistics. By 2020, the business plan is to have 15 employees.

Glasses can be preordered at genusee.com for $129 and 1 percent of the proceeds will be given to the community foundation of greater Flint.