4 Billion Contact Lenses sold in the USA today. 45 million Americans wear contact lenses. 5 billion contact lenses Acuvue Contact Lenses sold a year. 11.5 billion Global value in 2017 of contact lens market
First there was plastic bags, now plastic straws and what is the NBT (Next Big Thing)… Balloons or Contact Lenses? Yep, everytime you flush those contact lenses down the toilet or the sink.. you could be contributing to Plastic Pollution.
I Just Have To Eco You
14 Billion Contact Lenses sold in the USA today.
45 million Americans wear contact lenses.
5 billion contact lenses Acuvue Contact Lenses sold a year
36% of the Contact Lens market is daily or monthly.
50,000 pounds of contact lenses get flushed or go down the drain.
6- 10 of plastic contact lenses end up in United States wastewater annually. (256th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society)
A pair of leftover contact lenses can usually be found in every 2 pounds of sludge, according to Charles Rolsky
2.5 million used lenses amounting to about 7 tons of waste Bausch + Lomb has recycled since 2016.
Contact lenses recovered from treated sewage sludge could harm the environment. – Charles Rolsky
The way wastewater is treated in the United States the plastic waste from contact lenses, straws, and other plastics ends up contributing to microplastic pollution, which has been proven is making its way in the food chain. According to the study, it turns out almost 20% of people flush their used contact lenses down the toilet or sink. These used contact lenses become weakened when they are mixed together with the microbes in wastewater and eventually become tony granules of plastic that can’t be filtered by today’s wastewater systems. Since contact lenses are denser than water and end up sinking to the bottom of aquatic zones where they are eventually gobbled up by bottom feeders and from there spread up the food chain. It is estimated that some 8 trillion microbeads of plastic pollute U.S. waterways daily.
Of the major contact lens companies in the United States, the only one who has a recycling plan is Bausch + Lomb who should be congratulated. Johnson and Johnson is cutting down on packaging, but what about the other 2000+ global contact lens manufacturers? What about Contact Lens Supplies?
Think about the contact lens cases, the contact lens solutions, the re-wetting drops? What happens to them? I know I find them on the beach.
Each one of those contact lenses sold comes with a case. Each one comes with solutions. Add in your eye drops and Re-wetting drops.. it adds up to alot of plastic waste running into our oceans.
Private label eye/lens care solutions lead the market in terms of dollar sales, generating about 271 million U.S. dollars in 2017, followed by Bausch & Lomb BioTrue with about 100 million dollars in sales.
What is the Eco Solution?
Educate the eyecare professional and online companies online contact lens companies on contact lens pollution.
Educate the public on contact lens plastic pollution.
Involve eyecare professionals (more that the 2000 already involved) in recycling contact lenses and supplies.
Involve online contact lens companies in recycling CL waste.
Activate more contact lens manufacturers in Contact Lens recycling programs.
Those are just a few Eco Solutions, but each person who wears contacts or has friends who wear contacts can do their part by recycling their contact lenses and packaging.
Of the major contact lens companies in the United States, the only one who has a recycling plan is Bausch + Lomb who should be congratulated. Johnson and Johnson is cutting down on packaging, but what about the other 2000+ global contact lens manufacturers?
