TerraCycle’s recycling programs for Bausch + Lomb products have recycled 248,516 pounds of used contact lens, eye and lens care materials, the company announced Nov. 15.
A total of 41,358,603 million units were recycled by the eye care company’s ONE by ONE and Biotrue eye care recycling programs.
“An integral part of our commitment to helping people see better to live better is our focus on sustainability,” said Bausch + Lomb U.S. President Joe Gordon. “With our ONE by ONE Recycling program and the new Biotrue Eye Care Recycling program, we have greatly expanded the ways we can help reduce the environmental footprint of these materials in conjunction with eye care professionals, patients and consumers all across the United States.”
“We’re incredibly proud of the significant impact these programs have made to date, for the ongoing collaboration we have with TerraCycle, and we look forward to building upon them for years to come,” Gordon said.
According to The Association of Plastic Recyclers, the industry standard screen size, which identifies and removes unrecyclable plastics, filters out small-sized materials as part of the recycling process, and standard recycling facilities also only accept certain types of plastic.
Due to this screening process, contact lens, eye and lens care materials don’t typically end up getting recycled and are diverted to landfills.
Szaky
“Used contact lenses, eye and lens care products and the materials associated with them are waste streams that are often overlooked in standard recycling practices, which can have a tremendous impact on the buildup of environmental waste,” said Tom Szaky, founder and CEO, TerraCycle in a prepared statement. “Participating in these unique recycling programs we have with Bausch + Lomb offer people the ability to help ensure their eye health-related materials are properly recycled and don’t end up in waterways and landfills.”
The Biotrue Eye Care Recycling program is the first and only eye care recycling program in the United States, and since its inception has collected more than 65,000 eye drop single dose units, lens cases, lens solution caps, and eye drops multi-dose bottles. The ONE by ONE Recycling program launched in 2015 and has since collected more than 41 million units of used contact lenses, top foils and blister packs.
