Contact Lenses Are Polluting The Ocean — Here’s How To Actually Recycle Them (Spoiler: It’s Not Easy)

Summer 2018 will go down as the summer we said goodbye to unnecessary plastic waste. Starbucks committed to eliminating plastic straws in all locations by 2020, IKEA banned all single-use plastics from its stores, and entire cities (like Seattle) banned the use of plastic bags and straws... Fortunately, in an effort to minimize the waste generated by disposable contact lenses and facilitate the recycling process, some eye care companies have started their own recycling initiatives. Through these programs, individuals can ship their used contacts to TerraCycle (a company that specializes in recycling the hard-to-recycle) for free or drop them off at participating retailers.