NEW YORK—This Friday, November 15, is America Recycles Day, a day dedicated to increasing education about recycling and how it helps reduce waste, save energy and conserve resources. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)’s National Recycling Goal is to increase the U.S. recycling rate to 50 percent by 2030—something we can all get involved in every day, and double down on today. Last year, in recognition of America Recycles Day, the EPA wrote, “The recycling efforts of communities and business throughout the United States help with this success and growth. To build on our progress, EPA encourages every American to contribute by recycling right, not only on America Recycles Day, but all year long.”

The EPA offers a series of resources to help make recycling easier and more convenient for all of us, both at home and at the office. This includes its comprehensive How Do I Recycle? webpage, which details how to handle common recyclables such as plastic, paper, glass, aluminum, batteries and more. Keeping this page bookmarked and handy for those unsure moments before throwing something out rather than recycling it is one easy way to keep your office mindset green. 

Keep America Beautiful is another organization that puts a special focus on America Recycles Day. On their dedicated webpage, users can take a quiz to test their recycling knowledge, join the Greatest American Cleanup and learn ways to take action this week and beyond. 

In the office and in the optical world, there are plenty of ways to encourage recycling. Bausch + Lomb offers two recycling programs to ECPs, which allow optometry offices to become important community places where contact lens users can recycle their lenses, blister packs and top foils, as well as small eyecare items like bottle tops and lens cases. Many ECPs already take advantage of these programs, which help both the environment and local communities. 

Many ECPs also partner with local or national organizations to give new lives to gently used frames. Lions Club and OneSight EssilorLuxottica Foundation are two helpful resources, while smaller, local mutual aid organizations may also have programs in place. 

And, of course, getting involved with your staff and coworkers is invaluable. From organizing local beach or park cleanups to hosting recycling drives or offering more options for sustainable, recycled frames, there is almost no limit to the impact ECPs can make in their communities and worldwide.

The team at Invision Optometry in San Francisco is part of Bausch + Lomb’s One by One Recycling Program, which allows patients to recycle contact lens packaging. Image via invisionsf on Instagram


In Winston-Salem, N.C., the Eyes on Trade team partners with Lions Club to collect gently used eyewear for donation—another form of recycling. Image via eyesontrade on Instagram