The Lions Recycle for Sight program has enlisted the support of Specsavers stores across Australia to collect quality glasses that customers no longer wear. The glasses will be checked, cleaned and categorised before being sent to people in need overseas via partnering charities and humanitarian organisations.
The Lions Recycle for Sight program is part of the Lions Clubs’ International Worldwide Eyeglass Recycling Program, headquartered in Queensland and operating throughout Australia. Over a period of 26 years, Lions Recycle for Sight has delivered more than seven million pairs of refurbished quality glasses to men, women and children in need across many regions of the world.
Only the best of the glasses collected are provided to charity organisations. The rest are recycled
Requests for glasses are received from humanitarian organisations either travelling to a developing country or supplying shipping container loads of suitable humanitarian aid from Australia to groups in developing nations.
Pre-loved glasses collected at the Lions Recycle for Sight depot are quality tested to ensure any scratched, damaged or unacceptable glasses are culled. They are then both machine and hand-cleaned before being measured through a lensometer, categorised and boxed according to prescription. Only the best of the glasses collected are provided to charity organisations. The rest are recycled.
As well as supporting the Lions Recycle for Sight program, Specsavers donates a portion of every glasses sale to both a local charity of the store’s choice, plus The Fred Hollows Foundation, which is working to eradicate avoidable blindness both in Indigenous Australia and around the world. Specsavers also has a growing outreach program which sees its optometrists volunteering with different organisations including The Fred Hollows Foundation across Australia and the world.