About Us
GoGreenContacts.com was conceptualized by our founder, Dr. Joel B. Hayden OD, CNS at his Mansfield, MA Optometric practice. Dr. Hayden sees thousands of contact lens patients a year. He noticed many patients were reluctant to change from 2 week or monthly modalities to daily wear contacts due to the larger carbon footprint of the daily wear lenses.
Dr. Hayden began looking at the waste created by the 2 week/ monthly lens wearers compared to the daily disposable wearers.
Here is what he found in his research.
2 week lenses have a slightly larger carbon footprint than monthlies. We will compare 2 week modality to the dailies.
2 Week Contact Lens Replacement
26 pair of contacts/ year
52 blister packs/ year
6 10 ounce bottles of multipurpose solution/ year avg.
2.5 Plastic contact lens storage cases/ year avg.
Results in 0.91 Kg waste per year
Daily Disposable Contacts
365 pair of contacts/ year
730 blister packs/ year
No CL solution
No storage cases
Results in 1.0 Kg waste per year
So there is very little difference in the carbon footprint of 2 week, monthly, or daily disposable wearers. Now consider this. Most optometrists agree that the daily disposable wearers are happier, wearing contacts more comfortably that any other modality. Daily wearers have decreased issues with environmental allergies, contact lens issues such as irritation and dry eye issues. These issues require the 2 week/ monthly wearer to see the doctor for additional visits, use OTC or prescription medications which increases the carbon footprint even more for the 2 week/ monthly modalities. This in turn tips the scale making the daily disposables the better choice for the environment!
With this information in hand, Dr. Hayden wanted to then find a way to decrease or possibly negate the carbon footprint of the Daily Disposables.
Partnering with PlasticBank, GoGreenContacts.com will offset the carbon footprint of your year supply of contacts. This is done by PlasticBank’s program to stop plastic from going into the ocean waters. Thus decreasing if not negating the carbon footprint of your order.
Next, GoGreenContacts will send you a container to store all of your discarded contact lenses and blister packs. Once you have collected your year supply, simply take it to a TerraCycle contact lens retailer via Bausch and Lomb’s One by One recycling program.
You can search for a location near you with the link below:
Once you have completed this you will have created a negative carbon balance for your contact lenses!