Recycling Glasses - The Lions Club Of East Anglia Lioness

Changing Lives, One Pair at a Time

In just about any dresser drawer, one can find a pair of eyeglasses that are no longer being used. That same pair of eyeglasses can change another person’s life.

Lions Recycle for Sight

Lions Recycle for Sight is a Lion’s project which collects unwanted spectacles and recycles them for re-distribution to people who would not otherwise have access to spectacles. Lions Clubs in the UK and from other European countries including France, Germany, Greece, Spain and Switzerland participate in this project. Spectacles that are collected by Lions Clubs in the UK are passed to HQ who coordinate the spectacle collections and sort and remove broken ones. The spectacles are then packed for transportation to Medico in Le Havre, France.

At Medico spectacles from all over Europe are washed and cleaned before being sorted, graded and then placed in plastic wallets. They are then sent to Lions Clubs, mainly in Africa, who manage the distribution to those people who need them.

Medico France has three full-time employees and is managed by French Lions, who also carry out all the administration at no cost. Funding is from French Lions Clubs and elsewhere, including Lions Clubs International Foundation.

Medico processes and ships out 5 million pairs of glasses each year. The glasses are inspected, and sorted into ok to re-use or damaged. The damaged pairs are recycled, with the glass lenses taken out, crushed in a machine on site, then sold to a glass manufacturing company. Likewise the frames are sold on to a company who recycles them. All the money raised from recycling goes to cover the cost of shipping the refurbished and graded glasses to where they are needed.

The current projects (April 21024) that were being prepared are