I’m being haunted by a seahorse. Ever since I saw Justin Hofman's viral photo of that sad little ocean pony clinging to a plastic cotton swab, I’ve been aware of just how much plastic waste my beauty routine creates. Since the advent of plastics, humans have made 8.3 billion metric tons of the stuff. Of that, 6.3 billion metric tons have already been thrown out and 91 percent of that waste has not been recycled. I’m just one person contributing to a garbage mountain that threatens to suffocate the planet. So when Allure asked me to try a sustainable beauty routine with no single-use plastic, I was all in — as long as it wasn’t too hard.

When bringing this assumption up to my connections at Bausch + Lomb through advisory work, I was corrected and found that contact lenses, and the packaging they come in, are too small to be recycled. They just get filtered out of larger plastics sorting. Thankfully, though, a few years ago, Bausch + Lomb launched a partnership, the One-by-One Recycling Program, with TerraCycle, a specialty recycling company that works on “recycling the un-recyclable.” Contact lens waste from products of any brand, not just Bausch + Lomb, will be recycled.

Nearly 20% of U.S. contact lens wearers flush their disposable lenses down the toilet or drain when done with them, a recent study has shown. Those 2-3 billion contact lenses then become 20-23 metric tons of wastewater-borne plastics polluting the earth annually. Arizona State University scientists are reporting the first nationwide study that shows how consumers, by discarding used lenses down the drain, may be unknowingly contributing to plastic pollution. According to the study, lenses that are washed down the drain end up at wastewater plants and then in sewage sludge. For about every two pounds of wastewater sludge, a pair of contact lenses typically can be found. Sewage sludge is routinely applied on land for sludge disposal and soil conditioning, thereby creating a pathway of macro- and microplastics from lenses to enter terrestrial ecosystems where potential adverse impacts are poorly understood. HOW ECPs CAN HELP ECPs can help make their contact lens patients aware of the environment impact of disposable plastic lenses (even if not flushed, the lenses and blister packs end up in landfills) AND help them recycle the materials instead of throwing them away. The Bausch + Lomb One by One contact recycling program, now in its second year, allows ECPs to help their patients recycle their used contact lenses and blister packs. The program provides practices with receptacles for their patients’ contact lens waste (or, patients can recycle via an at-home program). The lenses, blister packs, and foil tops are then collected and recycled through a partnership with TerraCycle. The One by One program is approaching the 3 million mark in number of contact lenses recycled—and removed from our country’s waste stream. To read about how one ECP has successfully implemented this program in her practice, click here.

Over 100,000 pieces of contact lens waste has been diverted from landfill since July 2017 — a milestone the Bausch + Lomb Recycling Programme is celebrating soon after its one-year anniversary in Australia.

Summer 2018 will go down as the summer we said goodbye to unnecessary plastic waste. Starbucks committed to eliminating plastic straws in all locations by 2020, IKEA banned all single-use plastics from its stores, and entire cities (like Seattle) banned the use of plastic bags and straws... Fortunately, in an effort to minimize the waste generated by disposable contact lenses and facilitate the recycling process, some eye care companies have started their own recycling initiatives. Through these programs, individuals can ship their used contacts to TerraCycle (a company that specializes in recycling the hard-to-recycle) for free or drop them off at participating retailers.

(CBS News) - Some 45 million Americans wear contact lenses. Of them, 15 million wear daily disposables -- soft plastic discs that are worn once and thrown away... Bausch & Lomb has a recycling program for its Biotrue line, which took in 1.9 million contacts last year, according its recycling partner, Terracycle.

Now, a trio of researchers has done a first study on what happens to these lenses after they leave our eyes... Bausch & Lomb has a recycling program for its Biotrue line, which took in 1.9 million contacts last year, according its recycling partner, Terracycle.

In partnership with recycling pioneer TerraCycle, eye health company Bausch + Lomb launched the Bausch + Lomb Recycling Programme in 2017 to help Australians keep all brands of contact lenses, lens cases and blister packs out of landfill.

Add millions of used contact lenses to the plastic waste that's finding its way into oceans and lakes... For its program, Bausch + Lomb partners with a company called TerraCycle that specializes in recycling smaller items that wouldn't normally get separated in the standard process.

Some 45 million Americans wear contact lenses. Of them, 15 million wear daily disposables -- soft plastic discs that are worn once and thrown away... Bausch & Lomb has a recycling program for its Biotrue line, which took in 1.9 million contacts last year, according its recycling partner, Terracycle. The eco-conscious could also consider glasses, which last longer than contacts, tend to cost less over time and come with a reduced risk of eye infection.