'Everything can be completely recycled': Local program able to recycle contact lenses

WINNIPEG -

A local recycling program has found an answer for contact lens users – specifically, what to do with the lenses when they are finished using them.

Eye-health product company Bausch and Lomb has joined forces with Terracycle, a waste-management company, to collect and recycle disposable lenses and blister packs.

The goal is to prevent them from being tossed in the trash or flushed down the drain.

"Everything can be completely recycled," said Dr. Luke Small, a Winnipeg optometrist.

Small said he used to have patients who were concerned about switching to a single-use contact lens because of the waste it creates, but now that the program has been in place for the last year and half, more people have been switching.

"Probably 70 per cent of our patients are using daily modality lenses, so that's a lot of packing. A lot of little foil packs, a lot of lenses themselves. I am really surprised we are able to recycle the lens itself, because that's a really different material."

When a patient receives their lenses, Small said they are also given a plastic bag where they can dispose of all the waste, including the lenses. When the bag is full, people can bring it back to the eye clinic, where it will be put in a special recycling bin.

"This program just reached a half a million recycled packages, so that includes the lenses and the recycling," said Small. "I think it was 3,000 kilograms they have already been able to do in the last year and a half and they've kept that out of the landfills."

The plastic bags can be picked up from one of 13 local eye clinics that are participating in the program.

Participating locations can be found on Terracycle's website.