A first of its kind study has revealed that disposing of contact lenses down the drain has been linked to plastic pollution.
According to scientists from Arizona State University (ASU) in the USA, 15-20% of contact lens wearers in the country were flushing them down a drain, which amounted to 20-23 metric tons of wastewater-borne plastics every year.
During the study, the research team looked at 13 different contact lens brands made from nine types of plastic polymers. As they travelled through the waste water system, their structural strength broke down and the smaller plastic particles turned into tiny microplastics. These can end up in surface waters either eaten by aquatic organisms, which leads into human food supplies or they can accumulate up and pollute the environment.
Rolf Halden, director of the Biodesign Institute’s Centre for Environmental Health Engineering at ASU, said: ‘A simple first step would be for manufacturers to provide on product packaging, information on how to properly dispose of contact lenses, which is simply by placing them in the trash with other solid waste.’
He added: ‘A desirable long-term outcome would be to create lenses from polymers that are fine-tuned to be inert during use but labile and degradable when escaping into the environment.’
