EssilorLuxottica Opens Circular Hub in Rovereto

EssilorLuxottica has launched a new "Circular Hub" facility at its Rovereto plant in Italy. The center is dedicated to extending the life of the company's eyewear products and recovering materials, marking a significant step in the company's circularity initiatives.

The 300-square-meter hub received waste treatment authorizations and became operational earlier this year. It focuses on managing end-of-life eyewear by recording, sorting, and disassembling products. Components are then separated and directed to appropriate recycling and recovery streams.

This hands-on process allows EssilorLuxottica to deepen its understanding of materials and their end-of-life pathways. Metal components are recycled into secondary raw materials, and specialized processes aim to recover valuable substances from surface treatments. Industrial trials have also shown potential for recovering polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) from demo lenses.

The Circular Hub also serves as a testing ground for innovative approaches that can be scaled across manufacturing activities and shared throughout the value chain. Insights gained inform eco-design choices and help the company anticipate evolving European circular economy requirements.

The facility is part of EssilorLuxottica's broader "Eyes on the Planet" sustainability program, which supports the use of recycled and bio-based materials, eco-design principles, and strengthened internal recycling capabilities. The company also operates a take-back program for used sunglasses and prescription frames.