Eyeglasses Collection and Recycling

Throughout the year, the Plymouth Lions Club gathers all the used eyeglasses from the various containers throughout town, and makes arrangements to have them transported to the Eyeglass Recycling Center (ERC) located at the Wisconsin Lions Foundation Headquarters.The Eyeglass Recycling Center in Rosholt, Wisconsin is one of only 18 such facilities in the world. ERC serves to process used eyeglasses that are collected in containers placed in public places by Lions not only in Wisconsin, but in neighboring states as well. The most usable glasses are those with intact frames and undamaged lenses. Lenses without frames are not used. Eyeglass cases may or may not be used, but may help avoid damage in transit. Sunglasses can be helpful with peoples in hot climates and children’s glasses are particularly desirable.On average, 800,000 used glasses are received each year. Each pair is visually inspected. Usable pairs are then cleaned, the prescription read by special equipment, categorized (there are 49 categories by gender and prescription), packaged in plastic, labeled, sorted, boxed and put into inventory.At any given time, the ERC inventory available is about 125,000 pairs of glasses. These are provided without cost to sponsors of Vision Mission projects to developing countries. (Regulations discourage United States use.) Some mission groups are Lions, but there are many others, often including vision professionals.