A new campaign devised by Optician aimed at patients and practices is looking to try and reduce the impact of irresponsible contact lens disposal via wastewater on the environment.
Named Wear and Care, the campaign will start off by producing small sticky labels that practices can place on patients’ contact lens packaging. This will draw attention to the fact the one in every five patients flush used contact lenses down the toilet, which results in them ending up in water courses.
The label features an easy to understand graphic, which will encourage patients not to flush away their lenses. Optician will be producing sheets of these Wear and Care labels and will be including them inside future issues of the magazine in 2019. Optician also hopes the labels will be used by online retailers as well as practices.
This campaign has been inspired by research undertaken by Arizona State University, which estimated that almost 50,000lbs of contact lenses are processed by filtration plants. It has been predicted that every 2lbs of wastewater sludge produced at these plants typically contained at least one pair of contact lenses. The types of treatments used by filtration plants helps to break down the contact lenses into smaller pieces, which then can often find their way into both land and sea ecosystems.
Researchers have said that the best way to help to reduce the environmental impact of contact lenses would actually be to dispose of them within solid waste. Some practices in the UK have started contact lens recycling schemes to make it easier for patients to responsibly dispose of them.
Leading the way
Tompkins Knight & Son Optometrists in Northamptonshire has been encouraging its patients to take part in its contact lens recycling scheme. Practice owner Brian Tompkins had been wanting to do something like this since seeing that Bausch + Lomb do something similar in the USA. ‘I contacted TerraCycle after seeing that they offer Zero Waste Boxes for specific waste from dentists and hairdressers. After discovering they also provided a box for optical waste, I decided to join the scheme. We will have to pay to have the box taken away so its contents are recycled, but it’s worth it. I applaud the invention,’ he said.
‘We promote this scheme on our social media accounts and in the newspapers, inviting patients from other practices nearby to take part,’ added Tompkins. ‘A high proportion of our patients are aware of this scheme and a good proportion use it regularly.’
Tompkins himself saves his contact waste to bring in to the practice and put in the box. He said: ‘Plastic is the scourge of the planet right now, polluting our oceans and having a huge detrimental impact on the environment. I’m glad it’s been brought to our attention through the media, it would be crazy for somebody to not take this idea on board. I wholeheartedly encourage other practices to get involved in a scheme like this as there’s no reason not to do it. It’s a good message to give out to the public and to our patients, it gives me a warm and fuzzy feeling inside knowing that we’re helping. Introducing a contact lens recycling service is a small but vital step in the global war against single-use plastics. By recycling these materials, we can help give them a new lease of life rather than adding to the mountain of single-use plastic clogging up our planet.’
Valli Opticians has also got involved with TerraCycle’s Zero Waste Boxes. Contact lens wearers can deposit their used contact lenses, top foil and blister packs at 14 practices across the North of England. When these boxes are full, staff will then send them back to TerraCycle to be separated and then recycled. Solution bottles and cardboard packaging are not accepted in the boxes.
Rachel Valli, co-founder and head of marketing for Valli Opticians, said: ‘Social responsibility is very important to us as a company and helping to protect our environment is part of that. Reducing plastic waste is high on the agenda and we’re really pleased that we’ve been able to find a way for people to recycle their contact lenses. The scheme has been really popular with a regular stream of people coming to drop off their contact lens waste or posting it to us. It’s obvious that contact lens wearers have been crying out for a solution such as this. Everyone is welcome to drop off their contact lens waste in one of the special Zero Waste Boxes in our practices. If you can make a difference… then I believe businesses have a social responsibility to act.’
Advice and awareness
More and more practices, including Valli Opticians, Tompkins Knight & Son Optometrists and numerous independents have been purchasing Zero Waste Boxes for their patients to use.
Tompkins Knight & Son Optometrists’ TerraCycle recycling bin
Stephen Clarke, head of communication at TerraCycle UK, said: ‘We are able to offer free nationwide recycling solutions for contact lenses in markets such as the US, Australia and the Netherlands where we have a brand that sponsors the recycling. Currently we don’t have a UK sponsor so can’t offer a free contact lens recycling in the UK. This is definitely growing in popularity over here and it’s encouraging to see so many practices getting involved.
‘At the moment, contact lenses and their packaging can’t actually be recycled due to the mix of materials that it’s all made from. Lenses either end up in landfills or as was shown in a survey earlier this year, many people flush them, which is terrible. It’s great to have this service as an alternative for contact lens wearers.’
TerraCycle UK has recommended that practices talk to their patients and ask them if they would like to be able to recycle their contact lenses and packaging. If the answer is yes, then a Zero Waste Box is something that can enable them to offer their valued patients the chance to recycle in practice.
The company has also been offering Zero Waste Box Programmes for various other types of waste, including ones for the bathroom, makeup and its packaging and for beverage capsules in small, medium and large sizes depending on what is needed.
Richard Candlin, a contact lens optician at Anne Gill Eyecare in Portsmouth, explained that the practice he works at does not currently offer recycling facilities for contact lens waste. He said: ‘Patients are advised to dispose of used contact lenses in the bin, not to flush down the toilet. We advise initially about disposal, but should reinforce this more strongly at subsequent visits, as it’s not something we have routinely discussed up to now.’
How will the practice try to strengthen patient’s knowledge of how to responsibly dispose of and recycle contact lenses? ‘To increase patient awareness, we intend to display a poster in practice and put a post on our Instagram and Facebook pages,’ said Candlin.
On the subject of who it is down to for educating patients on the best course of action when recycling their lenses, he said: ‘I think it’s the opticians’ responsibility to inform patients what they should do, however we can’t force them to comply.’