Positive steps were taken in the battle to reduce the volume of waste contact lenses last week with the rollout of the first nationwide contact lens recycling innovative.
Run by Johnson & Johnson, in partnership with Terracycle, the Acuvue-branded programme will be rolled out in Boots Opticians practices and selected independents around the country and will cater for all brands of soft lens and associated blister and foil packaging. The lenses will be turned into outdoor furniture and plastic lumber.
Kamlesh Chauhan, director, professional affairs UK & Ireland, Johnson & Johnson Medical, said awareness around the issue of contact lens recycling had increased, prompting the company to act. ‘Over the past two years, the number of enquiries the company received as to whether contact lenses could be recycled grew significantly,’ he said, adding that the Blue Planet documentary seemed a watershed moment in people’s thinking on plastic waste.
Has this change in thinking increased the pressure on companies like Johnson & Johnson Vision Care to improve their eco-friendly credentials? ‘We as a company have made efforts to increase efficiencies and reduce our carbon footprint,’ said Chauhan. At the company’s Limerick manufacturing plant, new measures introduced are equivalent to 8,000 cars being taken off the road.
Biodegradable contact lenses are much further off, said Chauhan: ‘Researchers are constantly looking at ways that this can be improved. As much as we call a contact lens “plastic”, the reality is that it’s a complex piece of material. Getting a molecule that is safe on the eye, with the sort of performance we require that can be used in a contact lens, isn’t in sight.’
Patients will be able to drop their old soft contact lenses off at Boots Opticians locations around the country. These will be collected in dedicated waste containers and then sent to Terracycle for processing. ‘We would also encourage independent opticians to register their interest on the Johnson & Johnson Vision Care website,’ said Chauhan. The programme is free for both opticians and consumers, who can have their lenses collected free of charge. Once enough lenses have been collected by the patient, a free UPS shipping label can be printed off via the Acuvue website. ‘We want to make this as simple as possible for the consumer to use.’
Reaction
Despite the positive intentions of the campaign, several Optician readers took issue with the campaign’s marketing collateral, which they felt was out of sync with the message of the campaign.
Ahead of the programme’s launch, Johnson & Johnson ran a creative concept advert on the cover of Optician on January 11. The outside of the journal featured a clear false cover with images of plastic bottles and details of the campaign. The cover itself was made from polyethylene terephthalate glycol (PETG), a polymer that is biodegradable and recyclable.
Concerned readers contacted Optician to ask about the specification of the clear plastic cover – whether it could be recycled and to find out if it was made from recycled materials. ‘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,’ said optometrist Susie Hill.
On the decision to use such a cover, Chauhan said: ‘We have been diligent in ensuring that all of our assets are made from recycled materials, but there is a balance between getting a message across and ensuring that we are responsible. If the campaign gets a greater number of opticians taking part in the scheme, we can offset any impact relating to the material used on the cover.’