April 20, 2010

Recycle your Specs

Donate eyeglasses
instead of leaving behind
A future landfill
archeological find.

Green Eyes

As over the half the U.S. population knows, correcting your vision is not an inexpensive task. While you may be able to afford a new pair of glasses every few years, many people across the U.S. as well as across the world cannot afford to view their worlds clearly at all.

• Replacement glasses are a necessity for some and simply a fashionable upgrade for others. Whatever your reason for ditching your old pair, there's no point in hanging onto them and it's a wasted opportunity if you throw them away.
• Donate eyeglasses to a good cause. Simply drop them off at a Goodwill or Lenscrafters store and they'll end up at New Eyes for the Needy, which ships them to medical missions as well as to developing nations that truly need them the most.
• Recycle glasses if they are damaged or broken beyond repair. You can pop the lenses out and place the plastic or glass into the appropriate bins at your recycling center. In addition, metal and plastic frames that are broken can be placed in bins as well.

If you've got 20/20 vision, you can still provide vision assistance to disadvantaged people across the globe by donating money to an organization such as Vision Aid Overseas.

The Lions Club International collects around 20 million pairs of eyeglasses each year and provides drop boxes in a handful of U.S. states for your old specs.