What to Do with Old Eyeglasses?
What are the chances that you have a few old spectacles idling at the back of your closet or your dresser? Being an average eyewear user, it is quite normal to own a pair or two of old glasses. It can be as a result of an upgrade or simply that your contact lens prescription evolves. However, there is absolutely no sense in throwing away these old pairs, as there is always some scope achieved by thinking out of the box or getting into charity. Glasses or prescription lenses, if you have been wearing eyeglasses, are frames have much more potential than you probably think.
This article will allow readers to understand all concerns of the customers regarding their old pairs with respect and creativity, so as not to waste them but to be of usefulness to someone else or serve as decoration in the house.
Why shouldn't old eyewear be thrown away?
Old eyeglasses often end up in dumps, alongside plastic and metal components, which are chemically treated and will require a century or so to decompose. Besides, even the making of eyeglasses consumes energy, and so does the act of disposing of them. If you don’t require them, consider donating or recycling as there are people with no access to vision care and these glasses would do less ethical harm while also being less harmful to the environment.
Almost a million people in the world suffer from the lack of basic eyeglasses, which are crucial for work, studies or general everyday needs and activities. The practice of giving away your old pairs or wearing them simply to give them away can thus be said that it saves someone’s life or tremendously improves their quality of life. To this end, such a simple minded and mindless, in this day and age, also promotes sustainability and is in fact, an ecofriendly activity.
What to Do with Old Eyewear Frames?
Eyewear frames are relatively easy to make and can be made from any material. If necessary, they can also be utilized in the following ways or recycled.
1. Give Them to a Charity or Non-Profit Organization
Gazing Concern Inc., along with other organizations, collects worn-out eyeglass frames, modifies them, and remakes affordable or free spectacles for those in need. These charitable organizations, for the most part, target areas with little or no eye care services. The extra frames you have at home could be exactly what someone else needs.
Additional examples of such organizations include:
➢ Lions Club International: Collects eyeglasses and distributes them around the world through various recovery programs.
➢ New Horizons for the Squinting Children: Focuses on sourcing and collecting eyeglasses donations.
2. Recycle Them Through Local Programs
Contact optometric offices or recycling facilities to see if they will accept broken glasses. Some towns may run a program to ask residents for their old eyeglasses in order to recycle glasses, plastic, and metal frames. Even torn-up, half-broken glasses should be recycled as they contain usable parts.
3. Post Trade Suggestions for Them Online
Other characterized frames such as vintage and designer are worth money and are traded in secondary markets. Use websites such as eBay, Poshmark or others to sell your antique eyeglasses. There is the added advantage of protecting well-designed spectacles from the dustbin and enabling other enthusiasts to appreciate them.
4. Adorn Them or Create Something That Complements the Decor
People should not discard old glasses as they can serve a practical purpose. Use the old eyeglass frames and turn them into something more creative such as:
✓ Shadow Boxes: Instead of using eyepieces as borders, frame snaps or little memories in them.
✓ Wind Chimes: Pair them with several and nip insecurity during windy days in a more stylish result.
✓ Wall Art: Work with a wall structure and decorate an eyeglass frame of various designs and sizes and tell a story.
What to Do with Old Prescription Eyewear?
Your old lenses, though not sellable, can still be useful as they can be used in some form or the other. There are various means through which you can avoid throwing them away.
1. Get New Prescription Lenses and Have them Fit into the Frames promptly.
If you already have a nice pair of frame that fits perfectly on your face, you can opt to replace the lenses instead of the whole pair. One of many websites that offer these services is ZEELOOL which is a prescription lenses replacement center that allows users to replace their prescription lenses very affordably. This is a major benefit as one does not have to buy a new pair of glasses as there are a lot of frames that people like.
2. Charities Accept Prescription Eyewear
Applications like OneSight and Recycle for Sight help groups that have little access to eye care by collecting narrative substances. Donations like these are often collected and cleaned by organizations that sort the donations to help those in need.
3. If there is a Suitable Recipient, please Donate it to Other Members of the Community.
Don't throw away your old pair that would fit anyone else who has the same prescription as it would be very useful especially children or elderly people who may not have access to new glasses.
4. Use as an Alternate Pair in Case one Gets Lost and requires an Immediate Replacement.
Glasses are very delicate, it is easy to be broken and lose so it is important to have spares. Perhaps this is a better option for keeping a spare pair of spectacles that would be lost in the search for backup when needed and these could be stowed in the car, in the office, or in a travel bag.
How to Prepare Eyewear for Donation?
In the event of donating damaged prescription frames or eye gear, keep in mind the following:
1. Do not wear a lens that has been dirtied.
As and when it is required, this facility makes use of both microfiber cloth and eyeglasses cleaner. This may be relevant because it helps in ensuring that the gyroscope frames and lenses for which there is a donation potential become much cleaner than otherwise.
2. Safety Inspections
In addition, missing screws, broken nose pads, fractures in the frame, and scratches in the glasses should be determined during the inspection. It is crucial to confirm that the pair of glasses you are about to contribute does not contain large amounts of embellishment or decoupage.
3. Details / Other Accessories Aid Contributions
When sending out closet space, it is recommended to enclose cases or other accessories that accompany the items in order to offer more to these agencies. A complete set is often welcome by many associations.
Where to Donate Old Eyewear?
In many ways, stress can be given to the donation of frames meant for those who cannot afford it. The approaches are commonly reputable and central to most undertaking this activity.
1. Lions Club International
It maintains various stationary collection points located in the optometry offices as well as in the public libraries.
They rework the lenses and send them to communities around the world.
2. New Eyes for the Needy
New Eyes takes old glasses and even an old pair of sunglasses, and sends them out to a number of developing countries across the world. Many individuals sponsor this enterprise for the purpose of distributing the love effectively.
3. OneSight
Such an organization takes part in other organizations across the globe in distributing the glasses and addressing the eye care needs of the people.
Their vision is to close the vision care gap that exists and in so doing allow one person the ability to enjoy clear vision.
4. Recycle for Sight
This is a project that is being implemented under the auspices of Lions Club whose objective is the collection, cleaning and repair of old and handed eyeglasses, which will be distributed to the needy in developing countries.
The Environmental Benefits of Recycling and Reusing Eyewear
Instead of buying new glasses, people can wear the glasses that they already have, which helps avoid the unnecessary manufacturing of new products and the consumption of additional natural resources. In this manner, a plastic rim is estimated to take about four hundred years to break down and even then, the act of disposing of them to the land is polluting. Metal rims are sturdier, but they are made of composite materials and hence are very difficult to recycle.
When you take your old frames out to give them away, to recycle or reuse them, you are contributing something towards the conservation of the environment. Also, there is no need to put a restriction on the clear vision of those who are unable to afford eyeglasses because it is not a privilege one is seeking, it is a requirement that all society should be able to provide.
Conclusion
Eyewear, or as most call them, old eyeglasses, whose owners have little knowledge and are quite capable of doing quite a lot. If donated or recycled, eyeglasses will largely avoid landfills in the future. It is much more economically viable for people who are unable to purchase spectacles to use them than throwing them away. Recycling is actively participating in fighting environmental deterioration.
At ZEELOOL, the commitment is to educate people about environmentally sound methods of waste disposal, namely – old glasses. Every pair matters, whether it’s the older ones that may be used as backups or are transformed into something new creatively.
For extra pairs of eyeglasses or to purchase new lenses that can fit the old frames that one has, please go to zeelool.com where the latest collection can be found. Together, let’s combine forces and set an example of how eyeglasses should efficiently be used and the excessive consumerism of fast fashion trends should be replaced by greener alternatives.
