Go Green with Hubble Today!

You'd have to be living under a rock not to have heard about Global Warming and its impacts on the environment. Likewise, we often hear of companies and organizations taking steps to go Green and making environmentally conscious choices. In the last decade, a lot has changed in an effort to preserve and sustain our futures on the only planet we have, but what's our role in all of these changes, and can we do more within our personal lives? 

Many of us may already be taking steps to diminish our carbon footprint. Still, we may not be aware of our contacts and glasses' environmental impact and how we can change that. 

This Earth Day, Hubble encourages you to go green with us and make minor changes to your daily routines that'll have lasting benefits for our home, Earth. 


A more sustainable solution for contact lens wearers

With 45 million Americans wearing contact lenses, it's essential to our environment to ensure that all of these lenses are disposed of in the most eco-friendly manner.  

According to the American Optometric Association, 15-20 percent of contact wearers dispose of their lenses down the drain via their sinks and toilets. Doing so has tremendous negative impacts on the environment. 

  • 6-10 metric tons of the plastic waste of lenses end up in wastewater each year in the US.
  • These lenses break down in wastewater treatment, becoming microplastics.
  • Microplastics pose a significant risk to aquatic organisms, marine animals, and eventually our entire food supply.

What can you do differently to minimize these risks?

  • Always remember to dispose of your contact lenses in the garbage once you remove them.
  • Remember to recycle the packaging that your lenses come in if, like Hubble's, your lenses come in 100% recyclable packaging. 
  • Be aware of the packaging that your lenses come in. Most contact lens packs will have a recycling number 5 on them and need to have the foil removed from the lenses' packaging and cleaned prior to recycling. 
  • If you use contact lens solutions, be aware that those bottles can also be recycled. 
  • If you'd like to take your environmental initiative to a whole new level, there are recycling programs where you can drop off your used contact lenses. These programs accept used lenses, lens packs, and packaging. Check out TerraCycle.com to find the nearest location to you. 

                TerraCycle Tri-State Area Locations


Taking the listed steps as a contact lens wearer will considerably benefit the environment and leave you feeling like you're doing your part in saving our planet this Earth Day. 


A more sustainable solution for Glasses wearers

It's no secret that glasses are a more sustainable option than contact lenses, but what happens to your glasses when you don't have use for them anymore? Can you throw them into your recycling bin? Do they go in regular garbage? What is their impact on the environment? 

These may be questions we haven't honestly asked ourselves, or if you're like many people, you have a junk drawer filled with old frames at home, and you're wondering what you can do with them. 

The truth is your eyewear impact on the environment varies depending on the materials used to make your glasses. Some frames’ materials are more sustainable than others—one eco-friendly material used frequently in eyeglass production is cellulose acetate. It is considered a sustainable material due to being a synthetic compound derived from the acetylation of the plant substance cellulose. 

Does this mean you can recycle cellulose acetate frames? Not exactly! Like cellulose acetate, various eyeglass materials can "technically" be recycled. Still, to effectively and correctly recycle these frames, you first need to remove the parts of your glasses that are not recyclable, such as screws, nose pads, and temple tips. That seems like a lot of work and somewhat challenging to do in most cases, but if your glasses are broken beyond repair, we promise you it'll be worth it to recycle what you can and dispose of what you can't for the benefit of our planet. 


So what can you do with lightly utilized glasses you no longer wear? 

An excellent sustainable and humanitarian option is to donate your old eyewear. A bonus is you'll potentially eliminate waste contamination on our environment and also help someone else in the world see clearly. There are various organizations to choose from when taking this approach that will gladly accept your lightly used eyewear and guarantee that someone in need receives your glasses. Try the below-listed organizations when considering where to donate your frames. 

  • Lion's Club
  • Your local Goodwill (Check with your local Goodwill to see if they accept gently used eyeglasses)
  • Your local community center/food pantry ((Check to see if they take gently used eyeglasses)
  • The Salvation Army (Check with your local Salvation Army to see if they accept gently used eyeglasses)
  • Respectacle
  • Big Box Stores often accept gently used eyeglasses and will have a designated bin provided by Lion's Club within their stores. (Contact your local facility to see if they have a designated bin.) 

With so many options to choose from, you'll have your disused frames making their way to their new home in no time, and you'll have made a more environmentally sustainable choice. 

Side Note: Make sure only to donate eyeglasses you'd be proud to pass on to someone else that are in good working condition and have been lightly used. 


Go green with Hubble today!

Whether you wear contact lenses, frames, or both, there are various ways to make choices that will benefit our environment and the billions of people living in it. 

Hubble has committed to this initiative by producing 100% recyclable packaging for contact lenses and glasses. So you can feel good knowing you've made an eco-friendly choice when you order from Hubble. Furthermore, Hubble's frames are thoughtfully sourced, and our cellulose acetate frames are derived from natural fibers. 

So, shop away guilt-free and take the time to make the necessary changes when disposing of your eyewear to ensure you too can make a significant difference for our environment.