SOUNDS kooky, but your used contact lenses and plastic blister packs can now be recycled into park bench seats, watering cans and more.
And it's not only contact lenses in the sights of the Bausch + Lomb and TerraCycle program - blister packs are ripe for recycling too.
So, rather than toss those blister packs and lenses in the bin, you can sign up to the program, collect the used items in a box, download a prepaid shipping label from the TerraCycle website, attach it to the box and drop off at any Australia Post outlet.
The used contact lenses and blister packs will be recycled into sustainable products and materials.
It's a win for the planet and also a win for global fundraising initiative Optometry Giving Sight, which receives a $1 donation for every kilogram of accepted waste sent through the program.
Any brand of used contact lenses and blister packs is accepted.
As part of the recycling process, the items are separated by composition and cleaned. The metal layers of the blister packs are recycled separately, while the contact lenses and plastic blister pack components are melted into plastic that can be remoulded to make recycled products.
TerraCycle is also tackling other difficult-to-recycle waste streams like used beauty products, oral care waste such as used toothbrushes, toothpaste tubes and floss containers, snack wrappers and cigarette butts.
Optometry Giving Sight (givingsight.org) is a global fundraising initiative that specifically targets the prevention of blindness and impaired vision due to uncorrected refractive error - simply the need for an eye exam and a pair of glasses. More than 600 million people around the world are blind or vision impaired because they do not have access to the eye examination and glasses they need.
Donations allow Optometry Giving Sight to support programs that train local eye care professionals, and establish vision centres to deliver eye care and low-cost glasses.
