Contact Lens Recycling Available At Our Branches

Kelly Eyecare is listening to the scientists and are becoming increasingly aware that each and every one of us (to a greater, or lesser degree), is having an impact on the environment.

Alarmingly, if we were to carry on with the current rate of plastic production and use of landfills, there will be approximately 12 billion metric tons of plastic waste by 2050.

What happens next? Well…could you ever have imagined that those tiny little bits of plastic could end up being the park bench that you sit on to watch the world go by?

We are now taking steps to recycle our products and generally reduce waste.

Here are some contact lens facts:

Approximately 125 million people use contact lenses worldwide, including 3.6 million in the UK. That’s 8.7% of the adult population in the UK - a number that continues to rise year-on-year.

Each contact lens weighs 30 micrograms which equates to 0.5% of the total environmental waste.

An annual supply (365 pairs) of one-day disposable contact lenses, including the cartons, blister packs and foil, produces 1kg of waste per year.

19% of 400 contact lens wearers, surveyed by Rolsky, discard their contact lens into the toilet or sink. The plastic breaks down into smaller pieces in the water supply and forms microplastics, which are extremely harmful to aquatic life.

Here’s how you can help if you are a contact lens wearer:

In Ringwood, Brock, and Winton, we have now put Terracycle boxes (see image below) located just inside the entrance to the stores, into which you can put your used contact lenses, pods, foil tops and empty solution bottles (no solution, cardboard packaging or anything else into these collection bins please).

How to recycle your contact lenses:

Let’s preserve our planet for the next generation, we can do this together.

Visit your nearest branch and drop in your old, used contact lenses. We look forward to seeing you soon.