The folks over at eyeglasses manufacturer Shwood have managed to turn newspaper into veneer. It's more of a manufacturing exercise than a practical way to recycle, but what's interesting is the way they've done it: They started out by essentially reversing the process used to create veneer for plywood, whereby a log is spun and shaved so that it "unspools" like toilet paper. Instead they wrap newsprint around a wooden dowel and roll it up while applying glue, creating a "log" that's four inches in diameter.

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The resultant "log" is then sliced into "boards," which have the visual appearance of grain (bear in mind that the "heartwood" is an actual wooden dowel):

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The boards of course have no real grain, nor the structural properties of wood, so all they're good for is veneer that's then applied to frames made of Shwood's signature material, actual wood (up to $380 a pair) or a more conventional acetate frame ($199).

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Those prices are for the models that have the veneer applied to just the temples of the stems. They also made a limited edition "Select" version where the newsprint veneer is applied to the entirety of the frames, and the 50 units manufactured quickly sold out.

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Watch the process:

Again, this experiment is not a practical way to recycle; it doesn't take a particularly sharp eye to see they're using brand-new newsprint in the manufacturing video above. But I wonder if, in the future, we'll see more impractical or unlikely production method experiments undertaken purely to create products of aesthetic differentiation.