As commodious as monthly and day-after-day - manipulation contact lenses can be for those who are n’t bless with 20/20 imagination , they can also beharmfulto the surroundings and contribute to microplastic pollution when they ’re flushed down the drain .

The honest word is that the bleb pack your physical contact lens add up in can be recycled in a way that want very little time and sweat . If you ’re a contact lens wearer and want to do your part to reduce plastic waste , there ’s a simplesolution : Just place the empty bleb packs inside a moldable feeding bottle and drop it into the charge card recycling bin once it ’s full . ( Just verify you ’re discarding the enhancer pass over the blister pack first . )

Of course , it ’s always better to expend as few formative bottles as possible , so only do this if you were already using those bottle anyway . If your house is fairly anti - plastic , there ’s another selection . Contact lens manufacturing business Bausch + Lomb offers its own recycling program , calledOne by One . The company collaborated with TerraCycle to reduce waste by recycling all component of the product , including the used bulla pack , top enhancer , and tangency lenses themselves . The company accepts all brands of contact lens merchandise and estimates that it has recycle more than 25,000 pounds of promotion to date .

Marco Verch Professional Photographer and Speaker, Flickr (Cropped) // CC BY 2.0

“ Once received , the contact electron lens and bulla packs are separated and cleaned , ” Bausch + Lomb explains on itswebsite . “ The alloy layer of the blister large number are recycled severally , while the link lense and credit card bleb large number constituent are melted into plastic that can be remolded to make recycled products . ”

The reason why so many plastic blister packs end up in landfills is because the pieces are too small to be sorted properly at recycle plants . It ’s the same problem that affects plasticbottle cap , which is why it ’s recommended to leave the detonating equipment on , as long as your recycling computer programme tolerate it .

Optometry offices across the country are enter in Bausch + Lomb ’s recycling program , and you could visit the company ’s website to happen out if there are anydrop - off pointsnear you . If it ’s more convenient , you’re able to also station the items in a cardboard boxwood and mail them in , using afree merchant marine labelthat ’s available online .