What To Do With Old Glasses: All UK Recycling Options ♻️

Wondering what to do with your old glasses? Here are all the current clever ways to recycle, donate or upcycle your eyeglasses and spectacles in the UK for a zero-waste approach to eyewear.

If your house is anything like mine, then you’ve probably got several pairs of old glasses (and maybe some broken sunglasses) squirrelled away in the back of a drawer or cupboard.

A change in prescription can render a pair useless to you, yet throwing an otherwise perfectly good pair in the bin seems incredibly wasteful.

Especially when you consider that a whopping 321 million pairs of glasses are sold each year in the UK alone. That’s a whole lot of glasses and a whole lot of waste.

So what can you do with your old spectacles?

As tempting as it is, don’t wish-cycle them by popping them in your household recycling bin. Glasses can’t be recycled at home.

This is because glasses are generally made from mixed materials, including acetate and metal. This means they are not easily recycled and will instead end up in landfill. Charity shops don’t accept donations of prescription glasses either.

That doesn’t mean they need to be sent to landfill. There are heaps of UK organisations that will recycle your glasses for you for free. Here are all the places that will take them off your hands and reuse them or turn them into something new:

Where To Recycle Your Old Glasses In The UK

So what can you do with those old prescription glasses that you can no longer wear? Handily, there are a few different recycling options available in the UK – in-store and by post – to help keep your old spectacles out of landfill.

Recycle Instore At Specsavers

The optometrist chain Specsavers now collects old glasses for recycling. Just pop into any branch in the UK, and you’ll find a recycling box where you can place your old glasses free of charge. Handily, Specsavers also accepts old glasses cases and broken glasses for recycling.

This recycling service is provided in partnership with MYGroup. This is a recycling and waste disposal company based in Hull.

MYGroup takes old spectacles and manually and mechanically sorts them to separate plastics and metals. The metal is recycled into other useful objects. Meanwhile, the plastic is mechanically shredded and turned into recycled plastic boards. These boards are then used as replacements for plywood by the construction industry, shopfitters, joiners and more.

The MYgroup team also designs and creates a wide range of items made from recycled plastic boards, including furniture and home and gardenware.

Recycle Instore Or By Post With Recycline

If you don’t have a branch of Specsavers near you, then try Recycline. So far, this glasses recycling organisation has already diverted 500 tonnes of spectacles – equal to around 20 million individual pairs – from landfill.

Its website has a handy tool to find opticians near you who take old glasses for recycling. I’ve found that lots of private opticians near me take old glasses.

If you cannot find an optician near you, then individuals can also send their old glasses directly to Recycline. Find the current Recycline address details here.

Recycline is able to separate the mixed plastics and metals, allowing the individual materials to be put back into industry as a raw material, ready to be used again. These are then sold, and a proportion of profits is donated to charities to help with local and international causes.

Some of the materials are also used to make shop fittings for options – a case of serendipitous recycling!

Recycle Instore At Asda

Asda Opticians also take your old spectacles for recycling. So if you are shopping in-store at a branch that has an optical centre, then you can pop your old specs in the box provided.

The Asda glasses recycling programme is run by Recycline – mentioned above – who recycle old glasses into their component parts, and shop fittings.

Recycle In Person Or By Post With Lions Clubs

Alternatively, you can also donate your old wearable glasses by post or in person to The British Lions Clubs. This volunteering organisation has been collecting old glasses for recycling since 1967. Now Lions Clubs collect hundreds of thousands of spectacles and sunglasses each year.

Glasses are sent to Medico France – a humanitarian aid organisation – where they are cleaned, graded and then used in eye camps in Africa, India and Eastern Europe.

Broken glasses and any other glasses which are unsuitable for reuse are stripped for scrap metal. This raises funds that support the sorting operations. It also enables the Lions Club to give financial support to eye-related projects in the UK and overseas.

So far, over £675k has been generated from the salvage of recycled materials, with over £486k donated to sight-related charitable causes.

Use this link to find a local drop-off point or the Birmingham address to send your glasses to. They are only able to accept glasses, so please don’t post any cases or cleaning cloths to them.

Recycle Instore With Iolla

If you have a branch of Iolla Glasses near you (there are six stores around the UK – in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Manchester, Cambridge and London), then it will also take your glasses for recycling.

Iolla accepts glasses and sunglasses in any condition for recycling. This includes frames, prescription and non-prescription lenses.

Iolla says, “We cover all costs involved to recycle your glasses in the most responsible way, ensuring they can be reused and preventing any frames from reaching landfill.”

Recycle By Post With Retrospecced

Another handy way to recycle your glasses by post is with Retrospecced – a social enterprise that specialises in selling retro and vintage glasses. A 20% share of the profits made from selling the glasses is donated to Vision Action – a global eyesight care charity – and the Lions Clubs International.

Retrospecced takes any old designer spectacles, as well as any antique or retro spectacles that you may have found in the back of a drawer. The frames have to be in pristine condition – the lenses not so much, as they will be reglazed to match the buyer’s prescription.

For each pair that Retrospecced is able to use, you’ll receive a £5 voucher towards your next purchase from Retrospecced.

Recycle By Post With Botaniq

If your old glasses were from sustainable brand Botaniq (available at Boots and other opticians), then Botaniq will take care of them. It offers a handy recycle-by-post scheme for Botaniq-branded glasses.

Here, the lenses can be re-purposed to manufacture car headlights and sheeting for building work. The metal, once smelted, will become the base material for products like washers, nuts and bolts. Meanwhile, other plastics will be used to produce outdoor furniture, plastic shipping pallets, and more.

Boots Opticians doesn’t seem to offer any other recycling programmes for the other glasses it sells, which, for a big-name retailer, is quite disappointing.

Reglaze Your Existing Frames

Another sustainable option, if you need new glasses or have scratched your existing pair, is to have your old frames reglazed to match your new prescription.

Although unadvertised, many opticians will reglaze your spectacles if you ask. This is dependent on the age of your glasses – your optician will tell you if the plastic is too brittle to attempt reglazing.

If your optician doesn’t offer a reglazing service, then some online-only opticians do. This includes Peep Eyewear, which will reglaze and restore your favourite frames through its Peep Polish restoration service.

Not only is this a more planet-friendly approach to eyewear, but it may also save you money on new frames. New optical grade single-vision lenses start from £39, whilst varifocal lenses start from £99.

If your glasses prescription remains unchanged, but your frames could do with a little TLC, then Peep also offer this handy service. From oiling and polishing, this service removes scratching and discolouration, and restores lustre. It’s another handy way to keep your glasses looking good and out of landfill.

Sell Your Old Frames

If your old glasses have designer frames and are in good condition, then another sustainable option is to sell them online. You can do this through eBay, Depop, Vinted, or any other second-hand resale site.

Budget-conscious buyers often seek out preloved frames to get them reglazed to match their own prescription. This allows the buyers to get the designer look for less.

You can add your lens strength to the listing. However, in most cases, buyers will seek out glasses based on the frame rather than the prescription.

Whilst you may not get that much money for them, it’s a little money in your pocket and another way to keep your glasses out of landfill.

Donate To Your Local Theatre Or Drama Group

Finally, theatre groups and amateur dramatic groups often look for unique accessories and costumes, including eyewear, for their props and wardrobe.

If you’ve got any retro or unique frames, they could be ideal as a prop or as part of a costume in an upcoming production. Try contacting a nearby theatre group to check if they want any glasses.

The Bottom Line

Recycling an old pair of glasses might feel like a small drop in the ocean. However, if you add up the number of glasses being replaced regularly across the UK, then you soon realise it does make a big difference.

Whether you donate, recycle, fix, or pass them on to someone new, there are lots of great ways to make sure your old reading glasses don’t end up languishing in landfill.

Have you found any other options for glasses recycling? I’m all ears (and eyes!).

And looking to recycle more hard-to-recycle objects? Here’s how to recycle medicine packaging.