Letter: A poor way to advertise

I agree that contact lens recycling is very important, but I was shocked last week to receive my copy of Optician magazine clad in a very thick, glossy, plastic outer cover advertising Johnson & Johnson’s scheme for recycling of contact lenses. The concept of recycling contact lenses is highly laudable, but how many discarded Optician magazine covers will now be adding to the plastics burden of local landfill sites as a result of Johnson and Johnson’s advertising? Could they not have used a recyclable paper magazine cover for the advertisement?

I could find no information on the plastic magazine cover to say that it was recyclable, but even if it was, I feel this is a poor way to advertise the scheme by needlessly producing more plastic when paper would have carried a stronger message. It could have been printed on non-glossy paper for example to differentiate it from the usual magazine cover.