Recycle Eyeglasses

PORTSMOUTH - Portsmouth residents may now recycle prescription eyeglasses, reading glasses and non-prescription sunglasses at the City’s Recycling Center by placing them in specially marked collection boxes.

Residents can donate their used eyeglasses (including sunglasses and reading glasses) by placing them in the specially marked “Lions Recycle for Sight” collection boxes located at the Recycling Center behind the Department of Public Works building at 680 Peverly Hill Road.

The collected glasses will be cleaned, categorized by prescription, and prepared for distribution by Lions Club members to be given out free in developing countries where eye care is often unaffordable and inaccessible. The Lions Club program, launched in 1925 with Helen Keller’s call to be “Knights of the Blind,” distributes millions of glasses annually.

Eyeglass recycling is the latest item in a long list of things that may be recycled at the City’s Recycling Center. The Center has locations to recycle books, clothing, cooking oil, used motor oil, antifreeze, batteries, bulky waste, computer monitors and TVs, fluorescent light bulbs, propane tanks, yard waste and tires.

The City mandates the recycling of aluminum and steel cans, glass bottles and jars, plastic bottles (#1 and #2), and all fiber/paper waste (“if you can rip it - recycle it”). These items can be placed curbside for pickup on trash collection days or taken to the Recycling Center.

The Recycling Center is open 8 a.m. until 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, 8 a.m. until 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday and Thursday, and from 8 a.m. until noon on Saturdays. For information on the City’s sustainability initiatives, see www.CityofPortsmouth.com/sustainability.