We’ve had an email from Dean:

I have just had my eyes lasered and need a suggestion of where I can send unused trueye contact lenses? Also have some monthly disposables and two pairs of glasses?

Glasses – spectacles – are quite widely collected for recycling/reusing overseas — a lot of opticians have collection bins and some charity shops do too (Help the Ages, for example). Contact lens containers are also useful little things – eg, use them for carrying little amounts of salt, pepper or other seasonings on camping trips.

But what about the contact lenses themselves? Does anywhere collect them for redistribution overseas or anything?

Any suggestions?

We’ve had another email from Louise:

I wear specs and get prescription lenses for my sunglasses. I now have several original ‘lenses’ from sunglasses, which have been replaced with the prescription ones I need. Is there a charity that could use them? They all have UV filters and come from pricey glasses so should be of a good quality. It would be a shame to throw them out and for me they’re just useless clutter.

Even charities who collect prescription spectacles for redistribution overseas don’t collect loose prescription lens so unfortunately I doubt anyone will collect non-prescription ones. I would love to be wrong though – anyone know of any charities collecting them?

And what about complete sunglasses which are no longer required? Do any charities/organisations collect those for redistribution?

What about reuses? If the lenses are quite small, they might make giant but interesting earrings; if they’re really big round ones, they could be the start of a great bug halloween costume :)

Any other suggestions?

As well as finding a myriad of broken belts while tidying our bedroom the other week, I found an assortment of old spectacle cases dotted around the room too.

Most of the glasses have gone bye-bye – either lost or, in the case of my beloved plastic frames last month, snapped in half – but the cases still linger. I use one case for my spare pair and have another for my sunglasses, but that still leaves me with four empties – hard ones from the opticians, from when I got the glasses in the first place. I obviously will try not to accept any more in the future but what can I do with the ones I’ve got now?

While there are a lot of charities that collect old spectacles for redistribution overseas, those that filter them onto Vision Aid Overseas won’t take the cases – because presumably they use their own branded cases or the like during the redistribution process.

So does anyone know of any charities that specifically ask for old cases? Or have any other suggestions of things to do with them?

(Photo by ppreacher)

After some in-depth testing last week (closing one eye then the other, note blurriness, rinse, repeat), I suspect it’s time for me to get some new glasses.

I get new glasses every other year or so: partly because with the ones I pick, it’s about the same cost to get completely new glasses as it is to get lenses replaced in my existing frames and partly because after wearing them for at least 12 hours a day, every day, after a couple of years I fancy a change.

Anyway, I have a number of old pairs of specs hanging around the house – as spares and for wearing when decorating etc. But what else can I do with them?

I have a feeling some charities collect them for redistribution overseas – anyone know of any charities in particular?

Or does anyone know any companies that make it financially viable to replace just the lenses?

(Photo by capetan)