New Contact Lens Update Focuses on Sustainability for Practices, Manufacturers, and Patients

Tuesday, April 29 2025 | 15 h 56 min | News

As the “Earth Month” comes to a close, the Centre for Ocular Research & Education (CORE) has published a new guide to help practice staff and manufacturers minimize environmental impact year-round. Issue 83 of Contact Lens Update focuses on contact lens-related sustainability initiatives, wearer attitudes, and practical patient education. The bi-monthly publication is available at no charge by visiting ContactLensUpdate.com.

“There is growing attention to sustainable practices in eye care, driven by patient demand, practitioner awareness, manufacturer innovation, and evolving retail standards. The latest issue of Contact Lens Update highlights several of the most important opportunities for practices to engage with contact lens patients about environmental effects, proper disposal and recycling, and available programs to minimize impact of wear,” said Lyndon Jones, director of CORE.

Sarah Smith’sopening editorial provides evidence- based research to help guide patient conversations regarding the amount of waste generated by different lens replacement modalities. A research optometrist with Eurolens Research at The University of Manchester (Manchester, England), she also explores contact lens recycling programs and describes how the recycled plastic is given a new lease on life. In addition, Smith shares straightforward advice on ways to make practices more sustainable.

The feature article is written by Alison Ng, a lecturer at the School of Optometry & Vision Sciences at Cardiff University (Cardiff, Wales) and adjunct associate professor at the School of Optometry & Vision Science at the University of Waterloo. She summarizes a review surrounding the environmental effects of contact lenses, the vital role that practitioners serve in educating patients about sustainability, and the future of environmentally-friendly contact lenses.

The conference highlight comes from Sarah Mastrorocco, an optometrist at Walterboro Eyecare Center (Walterboro, South Carolina). She conducted an online survey at the Southern College of Optometry in Memphis, Tennessee, investigating how concerned soft contact lens wearers were about the environmental impact of lenses, whether they were aware of the university’s contact lens recycling program, their willingness to recycle their lenses at the school, and whether a company’s or practice’s commitment to recycling influenced their choice of product or eye care practitioner.

To help increase patient awareness of sustainable contact lens practice, CORE has created downloadable handouts for practitioners to use in this issue’s clinical insight column. These are ideal for in-office digital or hard copy display, staff training, and inclusion in take-home materials for new and existing contact lens patients.

Contact Lens Update Issue 83 follows CORE’s recent introduction of a first-of-its-kind eye care sustainability website: SustainableEyecare.com. A wealth of resources is available at no cost on the site to eye care practitioners, educators, manufacturers, students, and consumers.  

In addition to a complete archive of back issues, ContactLensUpdate.com offers a resource library that provides no-cost professional tools, patient resources, images and video. It also houses complimentary technical training videos produced by International Association of Contact Lens Educators, plus an industry glossary. Industry professionals can access the latest issue directly from ContactLensUpdate.com or quickly sign up for email receipt of future issues.

Click HERE for the press release.

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