Contact lens recycling UK scheme launches: You can now drop off old lenses to Boots Opticians to reduce plastic waste

Contact lens users will soon be able to recycle their used contact lenses as part of a partnership scheme announced by major retailers.

Boots, Johnson & Johnson and TerraCycle have teamed up to offer customers a chance to give back their old lenses, the Huffington Post reports.

How to recycle contact lenses

According to HP, people can drop their used lenses into Boots Opticians stores, or other independent participating stores.

Johnson & Johnson statistics suggest 3.7 million Brits wear contact lenses - and about a fifth of them tend to flush them down the toilet to dispose of them.

A tweet from Boots UK estimated about 1,000 drop-off points will be put into stores across the UK.

Typically, recycling contact lenses can be difficult because they are so small - so difficult to detect in recycling facilities.

Boots UK said the scheme was designed to be a "practical alternative" for contact lens wearers who tend to flush their products down the toilet.

Sandra Rasche of Johnson & Johnson Medical said: "Seventy-seven per cent of British contact lens wearers said they would recycle their contact lenses if they could and we share their interest in reducing the amount of plastics in the environment."