October 16th's Tip
Recycling Eyeglasses: Care to know an astonishing fact? Over 4 billion pairs of eye glasses are thrown away each year. Don't contribute your eyeglasses to that staggering number - donate them.
How to Donate
For donating your eyeglasses, there are a few options, including mail in and drop-off.
The Lions Club
The Lions Club has an eyeglass recycling program that collects more than 20 million pairs each year. You can drop off your old eyewear at Lions-sponsored collection boxes in your community. Typical locations include libraries, schools, community centers, places of worship, coffee shops, optometrist offices and other public locations where communities socialize and get together. For information specific to locations in your community, contact your local Lions club.
You can mail your eyeglasses (make sure they are safely packaged so they do not break) to:
Lions Clubs International Headquarters
Attention: Receiving Department
300 W. 22nd Street
Oak Brook, IL 60523, USA
OneSight
Each year, OneSight conducts Clinics in developing countries where doctors and trained volunteers provide free eye exams and recycled eyewear to thousands of people in need. Donated glasses are collected at thousands of drop-off locations and are sent to a OneSight recycling center where glasses are cleaned, prescriptions are categorized and glasses are prepared to be hand-delivered during a Global Clinic. To support 20 Global Clinics in 2009, OneSight needs to collect and recycle 1.2 million pairs of donated eyewear annually.
Bring your used eyewear to any LensCrafters, Pearle Vision, Sunglass Hut, Target Optical, Sears Optical or participating Independent practitioner. Locate a drop-off center in your area.
New Eyes for the Needy
Another group that donates eyeglasses to those in need around the world and in the US.
New Eyes for the Needy
549 Millburn Avenue
PO Box 332
Short Hills, NJ 07078
Have the Kids Help
Every year, The Lions Club and OneSight put on an event called SightNight. Children announce before Halloween, via door hangers, that they will be collecting used eyeglasses for recycling, and when they do their trick or treating, they pick up the eyeglasses as well. For more information on this program, visit OneSight, the info is in the right column.
Contribute
We are looking for reader submitted tips for Eco-Friendly Friday so we can share some even we may have not heard before. If you've got a unique or informative tip and want to contribute to Eco-Friendly Friday, shoot us an email. Be sure to include your URL if you want a link to your site included with your tip!
October 16th, 2009 at 7:08 pm
Thanks for the great post Stephanie! Good information. I love the idea of getting my kids involved too. They think nothing of Recycling and Composting - it's just automatic.
October 16th, 2009 at 10:06 pm
My oldest son wears glasses and each year when he gets a new paid his old pair is donated to the boy scouts. Here they collect them and use them to add prescriptions and they are given to the needy.
October 20th, 2009 at 2:18 am
This is a really nice way of making use of the old glasses by donating them to someone who needs them. We also get good information of how our glasses can be recycled and brought to use again by people. So we can donate instead of throwing and help someone. Thanks for the information.
October 25th, 2009 at 10:00 am
I finally went to get some new glasses the other week (harry potter glasses image was growing tired) from specsavers and they offered me money off certain type of frames if I handed in my old pair for recycling.
October 26th, 2009 at 2:32 am
I like this way of resuing our resources. Thanks for sharing.