Recycling Your Contact Lenses

Patients who dispose of their old contact lenses by throwing them down the drain or

flushing them down the toilet could be contributing to the problem of microplastic

pollution, scientists say. Given the estimated 5 million wearers of contact lenses in the UK

alone, how many millions of people are disposing of these plastics improperly? 

The American Chemical Society carried out a research that showed that 20 percent of more than 400 contact lens wearers, who were randomly recruited in an online survey, preferred to

flush their used contact lenses down the toilet or sink. There is information to support the

fragmentation of contact lenses into microplastics within a wastewater treatment plant.

Due to their size and packaging materials, recycling facilities typically cannot handle contact

lens processing, so they are diverted to landfills. A team concluded that microbes in the

wastewater-treatment facility actually altered the surface of the contact lenses, weakening

the bonds in the plastic polymers and promoting their disintegration into microplastics. The

lenses can then make their way into rivers, lakes and the ocean through runoff. Even if the

whole lens does not escape through waste water filters, the fragments of them can be risky,

too, contaminating the environment. 

The fastest-growing part of the contact lens market is daily disposable lenses, which create a lot more waste. Microplastics, may be ingested by fish and other animals thereby entering the food chain.

As unfortunately, contact lens waste is unsuitable to be placed in our recycling bins, if you

are unable to get to one of our specialist contact lens recycling banks at our practices, our

advice is to dispose of your contact lenses in your regular non-recycling bin.