Letter: Plastic wasn’t fantastic

Firstly may I congratulate Optician for supporting and promoting responsible contact lens recycling. This is an important issue that needs greater practitioner and patient awareness and hopefully your campaign will make a difference.

However, I am sure I was not alone in my incredulity at the crass use of a totally unnecessary plastic cover of the January 11 issue of Optician by Johnson & Johnson Vision Care. I was pleased to find out, following my initial contact with the editor of Optician, that despite the absence of any information, the cover was in fact recyclable and biodegradable. However, with recycling services patchy across the country in what they can or will recycle, combined with a total reliance on people not to simply throwing the magazine in the bin, I think it would have been better not to use a plastic cover at all.