Do you wear contacts? If so, you’ll want to read how we’re contributing to polluting our ocean and harming sea life. Who has rinsed their disposable contacts down the sink or toilet? I did for years! It was easy to pop the lenses off my eyes and down the drain at night. I’m nearly blind without my lenses, so walking to the trash can and trying to flip those sticky little lenses into the trash successfully wasn’t pretty. Ask The Finn about the time he found my dried lenses stuck to the toilet seat because I couldn’t tell they didn’t make it into the nearby trash can.
Research shows contact lenses don’t completely break down when they’re flushed down the drain. The water treatment center breaks them down, but not entirely. The broken up bits are released into the water and damaging our marine life. You can read more about it HERE.
Everyday I open two fresh packs for my daily lenses. That means I have two blister packs I toss into the trash or recycling. Yes, you can dispose of the blister packs and top foil in your recycling bin, but they are sometimes discarded because of their small size. And you still have the contact lenses you need to toss at the end of the day and contribute to the ever-growing landfill.
There is an easy way to remedy the situation. Bausch + Lomb and TerraCycle have a program that recycles contact lenses, blister packs and top foil. Simply save the items in a small box, print off a free shipping label and drop it off at a local UPS location.
All brands of contact lenses can be recycled through their program. Once received, the contact lenses and blister packs are separated. The metal part of the blister packs are recycled separately, while the contact lenses and plastic blister packs are melted into plastic that can be remolded to make recycled products.
To learn more about the program or to print off your label, check out their program HERE.