What to do with your old glasses and sunglasses

It’s national Recycle Week so here’s some handy hints on recycling your old glasses and sunglasses. Repairing and rewearing is the most eco friendly way to reuse your old glasses, but the next best thing is to recycle your old eyewear.

Glasses frames are a tricky mix of metal and plastic, they currently can’t be simply popped in with the household recycling, as the materials need separating out to be fully recycled.

So how can you recycle your old glasses? Here’s our guide to recycling and donating glasses and sunglasses.

reduce glasses waste

Choosing a quality pair of glasses is the best way to reduce glasses waste and keep them out of landfill. Look for quality acetate, metal not plastic hinges and a nice weight and feel will reveal a well made pair.

Go for vintage or preloved secondhand glasses frames over buying new for a more circular sustainable option.

Look after your eyewear, as loved things last. Keep in the case and clean with the cloth - no leaving glasses lens down and you’ll avoid scratches and cracks - head here for more on how to look after your glasses.

Repair and rewear your old frames instead of being tempted to buy new each time your prescription updates.

Repair and rewear old glasses

If you can't bear to part with your favourite glasses, reuse and rewear your old eyewear. Damaged lenses can be reglazed and updated while your frames can be repaired and restored to bring them back into use.

Frame scratching and whitening can be polished out, hinges repaired, nose pads replaced and sides straightened. The reglazing process is easy and your old lenses can be simply replaced with your new updated prescription.

If you’re still in love your current frame, re-lensing glasses is the perfect sustainable solution. You have the option to add in extra coatings or add in a blue light filter for a pocket friendly alternative to buying new.

Or you could add in a tinted lens and turn your old glasses into sunglasses, breathing new life into your old pair.

recycle your old glasses

Old glasses frames or vintage sunglasses hanging around? Don't throw them away - feel good and give back by donating them to us to be recycled or upcycled.

Donate your old frames and we’ll repurpose them by restoring and reselling your unwanted frames saving them from landfill. Or we’ll reuse their parts for repairs. The majority of our donated frames go on to Lions Club who use them to do good in sight related projects in the UK and overseas.

Any we can’t salvage go for recycling at a specialist facility.

Send us your vintage glasses or modern glasses frames and you’ll receive a £10 voucher to spend in store on a new-to-you frame.

You can also donate them direct to Lions Club who will use them to raise money for sight related charity projects across the UK. Vision Aid Overseas are no longer running their glasses recycling scheme.

We don’t recommend donating your old glasses to charity shops, unless they have a designated glasses recycling collection box, as they won’t be able to resell the glasses with prescription lenses and might just end up in landfill. They may accept ready reading glasses, but check with your local charity shop first.

play Dress Up

Keep your old glasses for costume parties and fancy dress. Mums.. a small supply of glasses, particlarly round Harry Potter frames, can come in more than useful for World Book Day. Then there’s Halloween and theme parties to consider.. go as your favourite glasses icon.. we’re thinking Elton John, Iris Apfel, Jackie O or Michael Caine.

re-Sell your old glasses

Cotton Bro

Keep unwanted eyewear out of landfill and make a little money for your next frame purchase by selling your old glasses on eBay or Depop. Use a good picture and lots of lovely description to help them sell, remembering to include any flaws. Glasses, especially modern frames, have eye size, frame width and lots of information including make and model numbers on the inside to help you make that sale.

gift your glasses

Daria shevtsova

Give your glasses as a gift to friends or family, a frame might just suit them too. We wouldn’t advise sharing lenses with your bespoke prescription, as wearing the incorrect strength can damage your peepers, so lenses should be removed first.

Your gifted glasses can be restored and reglazed as a present for a loved one or made into ready reading glasses perfect for regifting.

If you want to learn more about what you can and can’t recycle - head over to Recycle Now and let’s keep what we can out of landfill #reducereuserecycle

Jo

Plastic Free July

anna shvets

It’s Plastic Free July and while we like to be as plastic free as possible all year round, this month is the perfect time to look at new ways to ditch the plastic and find low waste, eco friendly swaps that are good for people and planet.

Plastic doesn’t biodegrade, hanging around on earth polluting land, water and mammals including us. Shockingly microplastics have recently been found in plancentas of unborn babies and it’s estimated we’re all consuming a teaspoon of it a week. Worryingly less than 10% of plastic produced has been recycled, so we’re just tipping into landfill and filling up the earth.

Over 300 million people got involved last year in reducing plastic for the month of July, the campaign encouraging us to consider our consumption and make small changes that can add up to a big difference.

small swaps

It’s time to ditch all the pandemic disposables and bring back all our reusable cups, water bottles and containers. The WHO say there’s no evidence viruses are transmitted via food packaging, just wash your reusables with warm soapy water.

Shop loose fruit and veg and use local famers markets.

Grow your own herbs on the windowsill rather than purchasing those sad little packets.

Use your resusable bags for shopping and stash by the door or in your car for easy access.

Buy in bulk, there’s often less plastic packaging than individually wrapped smaller items.

Find your local zero waste store for refillable soaps and food products.

karolina grabowska

Swap out your bathroom with eco friendly alternatives like a reusable safety razor, shampoo bars and washable cloth face wipes.

Switching from bottled liquid soap to soap bars, chosing reusable cleaning cloths/brushes, and switching to paper or cardboard wrapped products.

Seek out planet-friendly materials such as wood, paper, cardboard (all biodegradable) and metal or glass, both of which are more easily recyclable than plastic along with more durable and longlasting.

Choose to reuse wherever possible, jam jars are perfect for storing anything from food to bath salts.

Look to the 5 R’s: Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Rot

Feeling inspired? Take the pledge here

Though our packaging is plastic free, we’re always looking at new ways to eliminate or reuse plastic that comes into the studio from other sources or finds its way into our home, it’s always a work in progress. While we wait for government and big business to get their ducks in a row, we can lead the way.

Little acts can add up to a big difference - we got this.

Jo

Plant a tree for the Jubilee

Gary Barnes

Did you know for every pair of glasses or sunglasses we sell, we plant a native tree right here in the UK. This year we’re also planting trees for the Platinum Jubilee in celebration of The Queen’s 70 years of Service. The Queen’s Green Canopy is a tree planting initiative created to mark Her Majesty’s Platinum Jubilee in 2022 which invites people from across the country to ‘Plant a Tree for the Jubilee’.

Everyone can take part in enhancing our environment by planting trees from October, when the tree planting season begins, through to the end of the Jubilee year in 2022. The Queen’s Green Canopy are also dedicating a network of 70 Ancient Woodlands across the country and identifying 70 Ancient Trees.

There are lots of ways to get involved - you can plant a tree in your own garden and pin it to QGC map or with our charity partner Trees for Cities, one of the official QGC partners, we’ll do it for you every time you purchase a pair of glasses or sunnies from us 🌳

Gary Barnes

Mass tree planting is one of the simplest ways to help the environment and trees are vital to our wellbeing... storing carbon, cleaning the air, and helping to increase biodiversity, not to mention the benefits to our mental health by just being in their company. ⁣

Our tree planting partner charity Trees for Cities strengthen communities by creating green spaces through volunteering opportunities and have planted 1,117,899 trees and counting. ⁣

⁣⁣From urban forests to the creation of edible playgrounds, getting stuck in with local communities to cultivate lasting change in neighbourhoods across the country – whether it’s revitalising forgotten spaces, creating healthier environments or getting people excited about growing, foraging and eating healthy food. ⁣

Gary Barnes

⁣Every pair of glasses or sunnies we sell plants a native tree where it’s needed most, right here in the UK.

How will you plant yours?

Jo

A Slow Fashion Revolution

It’s Fashion Revolution week and the spotlight’s on the sustainable slow fashion movement. It’s also our second birthday this month and in celebration we’re giving away some upcycled loveliness.

We’re living in a throwaway culture where newness is KING. In a world of over production and over consumption – it’s time to live more simply and more slowly.

300,000 tons of used clothes go to landfill in the UK every year. Worryingly over the last 15 years clothing production has doubled and the number of times a garment is worn has decreased by 36%.

Once they hit landfill, decomposing clothing releases methane, a harmful greenhouse gas. But the good news is for every ton of discarded textiles that is reused, 20 tons of CO2 is saved from entering the atmosphere.

So where do we start?

Become a Conscious consumer

We’ve turned shopping into hobby, perhaps forsaking the pastimes of yesteryear like embroidery and art. Instead we’ve turned to retail therapy and it’s costing us all. Are we looking for happiness in all the wrong places? It’s not too late, we can choose to slow down and consume more consciously.

Brooke Cagle

Being a conscious consumer sees us making eco-friendly choices alongside humane working practices. It’s about considering our impact on people and planet.

Shopping Vintage + Second Hand First

Shopping preloved is an adventure and more of an experience than a chore. When you shop second hand you’re supporting causes and saving clothes from landfill, so feel good factor is way up!

Artem Bali

Shopping vintage develops your personal style. You soon learn what looks good on you and select garments on fabric and fit over seasonal trends. You can shop all eras at once and vintage pieces are easy to fall in love with as they’re unique and evoke memories.

• Be open minded and try pieces on

• Don’t rush, slow down and savior the experience

• Go for natural fibres like cotton, wool and linen

• Details and lining indicate quality

• Seek out heritage brands like Jaegar + Aquascutum

Check out Oxfam’s handy vintage clothes care guide

how to shop sustainably

Sustainable fashion is about changing our mindset and exploring new ways to shop. Again it’s about slowing down and stopping to think before we make a purchase. It’s quality over quantity, investing in pieces that will last and when they start to wear, repairing and restoring.

Brooke Lark

Support small business and companies doing good things, offsetting impact and helping people and planet. Apps like Good On You and Co Go and websites like Compare Ethics can help you make good decisions.

• Buy only what you need

• Aim for 30 wears per piece

• Fits into your current wardrobe

• Shop vintage and second hand first

• Shop sustainable and ethical brands

• Shop local, handmade and fairtrade

upcycled giveaway

In celebration of Fashion Revolution and Peep turning two we’re giving away an upcycled package for you and a friend to have your favourite frames completely refurbished.

We’ve also teamed up with the lovely Ella at Bear Shark Embroidery and she’s going to hand embroider the lucky winners a personalised glasses pouch made from recycled vintage fabric!

Scratches, dents and dinges will be a thing of the past. They’ll be looking like as good as new when we’ve finished polishing, primping and preening. Add a new prescription into your cherished vintage glasses or change them up and go for a coloured sunglasses tint.

Enter over on Instagram and tag in a friend here goes live Monday 22 April. Update: Giveaway is now closed.

Join the Fashion Revolution and show support by buying the Fanzine, reposting on social and asking our favourite brands ‘Who Made My Clothes?’

Jo

We Got Bottle

Photo by Giuseppe Famiani on Unsplash

Did you see Blue Planet? Then you'll know single use plastics have got to go. For those that didn't, eight million metric tonnes of plastic is dumped into the ocean each year and it's harming both the sea creatures and the environment. 

Soon our seas will be more plastic than fish. 

Photo by Linus Nylund on Unsplash

Globally we go through a million plastic water bottles a minute. BPA is thought to leach into food, drink and harbour bacteria - the time is now to switch to a reusable bottle or cup!

We'll be upcycling those bottles into our new cleaning cloths. 

Our exclusive Peep branded cloths are made from 100% recycled PET plastic bottles and are the perfect way to keep yourself smear free. Soft, durable, anti-static and washable on a low temp - everything you could ask for in a cloth.

Clean your glasses while saving the planet.

All in a day's work,

You're welcome.

Jo