A healthy vision for a healthy planet

Bupa Optical Opticycle

To help make maintaining healthy vision more sustainable, Australians are now able to recycle their old glasses, contact lenses and contact lens packages at Bupa Optical & Hearing stores around Australia as part of a new partnership with Opticycle.

Today more than 50 per cent of Australians live with one or more long-term eye conditions, resulting in between 250 and 500 million contact lens packages alone are sent to landfill in Australia each year. This partnership will see the used products dropped off at Bupa Optical recycling bins and given a new life after being passed on to local Australian companies as raw materials for new products.

Bupa Managing Director of Health Services, Liz Curran said this recycling initiative is a great way for people to expand their sustainable mindset and give a new life to common optical products.

“We know many Australians don’t know what to do with their old glasses and contact lenses which invariably end up in landfill which is problematic for the environment when you consider that many contact lenses take 500 years to decompose.

“That’s why we want to see as many of our customers and people from the local community drop by with their old products to help us support healthy vision and a healthy planet,” Liz said.

People can drop off their frames, contact lenses and contact lens packages at Bupa Optical & Hearing’s 49 stores around Australia during regular opening hours without the need to make an appointment or be an existing customer. By doing so they can contribute to the over 41,000kg of materials and 210m3 of landfill space which Opticycle estimates to have saved to date.

“This initiative forms an integral part of our broader ambition to become a net-zero business by 2040 as we continue to look for ways to reduce our impact on the planet with a focus on reducing waste and shaping a circular healthcare system,” Liz said.

Bupa recently launched, in partnership with Health Care Without Harm, a global report outlining key principles for reducing reliance on single-use items in healthcare, while ensuring the highest levels of patient care are maintained.

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