Specsavers in Pembroke Dock has teamed up with a new zero waste shop to offer customers the chance to recycle their glasses and contact lenses for free.
This comes after the high-street opticians partnered with recycling experts MYgroup to install recycling collection boxes up and down the country.
The recycling boxes will be housed at Pembrokeshire Refill, an eco-friendly shop which opened recently at St Govans Shopping Centre in Pembroke Dock. It gives customers a chance to drop off both metal and plastic glasses and sunglasses, as well as contacts lenses and accessories, including blister packs, contact lens cases and solution bottles.
Once the collections bins are full, the items will be shipped off to MYgroup recycling plant.
The glasses and contact lenses will be given a second lease of life and repurposed into a wide range of items such as furniture, home and garden accessories, including benches and play park equipment.
It can also be used in the building trade as a great alternative to plywood. Unlike some recycled items, the recycled board created by MYgroup has the potential to be recycled over and over again, so any items dropped off for recycling can be repurposed multiple times.
This is just one of many steps taken by Specsavers to try and protect the planet and achieve its goal of becoming climate positive – removing more CO2 from the environment than the company generates – by 2035.
Ellie Thomas-Wigley, Specsavers Pembroke Dock director, said: "At Specsavers we are always striving to improve what we do to protect the planet, so we are pleased to be offering customers the chance to recycle a range of eyewear products.
"We know from customer feedback that people want to be able to recycle these items, so we are really pleased to be able to team up with Pembrokeshire Refill and MYGroup to meet our customers needs in this important way and to encourage the people of Pembroke Dock to reduce their use of single use packaging.
"Sustainability is at the core of our plan for the future and by offering this service we’re making it easier than ever for customers to play their part.’
What can I recycle?
Glasses
Sunglasses
Contact lenses
Contact lens plastic packaging (solution bottles, blister packs, cases and tweezers)
What cannot currently be recycled?
Glasses cases - unfortunately these are made of lots of component parts and are not practical to recycle at the moment.
Lens cloths
Sara Marabese-Villios, project manager of Pembrokeshire Refill, added: "We are delighted to be working with Specsavers, helping to provide an instore recycling solution for their difficult to recycle waste.
"This will allow customers to recycle material that would have previously been destined for landfill or incineration by turning them into a range of useful products, and by having the recycling boxes in our store, we are hoping it will encourage people to make small changes to their shopping habits to help them shop more sustainably."
To find out more about Specsavers Pembroke Dock or request an appointment, visit www.specsavers.com/pembrokedock.