What to do with your waste, old and soiled eyeglasses?

4 Ways to recycle your eyewear

Hey, we're all aware that wearing glasses for vision correction is quite prevalent. However, did you know? About 350 million Indians require vision correction, and only approximately a quarter of the population, or 87.5 million people, have their vision corrected! That leaves approximately 94% with spectacles, 6% wearing contact lenses, and 2.5 percent wearing both. If we include the percentage of children, it will appear as though we have never heard of foods rich in antioxidants for eye health. But wait, there's more. It doesn't stop there; these figures are likely to rise. Now, given all this, do you think we can afford to have more lenses, frames, and glasses go to waste and fill up the landfills? Certainly not! We need to figure out how to fix this, and don't you worry! We shall help within our capacity :)

Take them to your optician!

We all have our favourite optician [aka S.R.Gopal Rao ;) ]. You may have bought many products from your go-to optician, since you were so enamoured with their eyeglasses, yet some of these may no longer be in use. Take these glasses that are no longer in use or to be discarded to us, as we will accept them and assist you in discarding them responsibly. At S.R. Gopal Rao, as part of our green initiatives, we up-cycle these glasses handed over to us by you in our capacity. We present them to gifted artists, across the country, who transform trash into art! Isn't that great? What if you don't need an artist to do it and instead want to try your hand at up-cycling? Keep reading!

Image Copyrights : S.R.Gopal Rao Opticians & Optometrists

The world is your canvas, and so are your old lenses, pick a brush and paint your picture.

Your favourite pair of glasses could have been a present from a loved one, or it could have been something you got for yourself after weeks of budgeting. Why should it be tossed away because the prescription has changed? Let us not throw them away but rather preserve them. Now, instead of saving them as is, as a special gift, let us upcycle them into something better, a precious new piece with a backstory. If you enjoy making crafts and want to savour that beautiful eyewear; recycled jewellery and DIY home decor can be your go-to thing!

Image Credits : Pinterest

Pick a colour, paint your lens, add a chain, hang it around your neck. Repeat, make an earring. Voila, now, you have a piece of new jewellery that can be flaunted with a rich past, a cute little backstory. Upcycling your eyeglasses yourself is the best option because it saves money and provides you with a sense of accomplishment.

Reuse your glasses!

Although your prescription may have changed and you may need new lenses, does this imply you must discard your frames? Not necessarily! Many opticians will aid you in using the same eyeglass frame for different lenses if you seek it. Retaining the same eyeglass frame with a new pair of lenses may not be advertised as the best alternative because it may interfere with the opticians' economic motive, but it is an option you can always choose.

Thrift away

Pick up your phone, and upload a photo of the glasses you're no longer wearing! You will be startled by the response; your friends and family may be thrilled; after all, they may have been hunting that piece for a long time, and you have just delighted them! You never know who might be interested in your possessions or who might know someone who is. This way, the fancy eyewear you no longer find chic will have a longer shelf life with someone who has recently become hooked with that aesthetic.

There are several options for recycling or disposing of your eyewear, but they must all be handled ethically in any case. Instead of contributing to environmental devastation, we should recycle, up-cycle, and repurpose eyewear. Happy Up-cycling!

To know more about our green and eco-friendly initiatives, click on this link to get the dets!