How to recycle your used contact lenses

Johnson & Johnson Vision (J&J) and TerraCycle joined forces earlier this year to launch the Acuvue Contact Lens Recycle Programme across the UK. This is the UK’s first free nationwide programme to enable customers to easily recycle contact lenses, as well as the blister and foil packaging.

The scheme is completely free of charge, through drop off bins situated in various opticians practices around the country. People can also recycle them through a postal collection service, where they can download a shipping label from either J&J’s Acuvue or TerraCycle’s websites and arrange a home collection, also free of charge.

The scheme aims to reduce plastic waste in landfill and water by making it easy to dispose of used contact lenses and packaging by creating partnerships with Boots Opticians and a range of independent opticians practices to provide more than 1,000 public drop-off recycling points across the country. The recycling points are available to all contact lens wearers, regardless of what brand they use.