Home-grown contact lens brand Two Of A Kind has launched a first-of-its-kind recycling initiative that encourages contact lens wearers to recycle their lens blister packs instead of disposing them.
The blister pack is a plastic container with an aluminium foil cover that contains disposable contact lenses.
Under the programme called Project 2×2 (two by two), all blister packs collected will be sent to its recycling partner, Tay Paper Recycling. It will then sort and prepare the packs to be sent to a plastic recycler to be processed into plastic pellets and repurposed for other polypropylene applications such as clothing fibres.
The co-founder and chief executive officer of Two Of A Kind, Mr Darryn Tan, said “retail and consumer companies, especially in the optical industry, are not providing consumers with the ways or means to take action to reduce plastic waste and pollution”.
Project 2×2 is a not-for-profit initiative where Two Of A Kind and Tay Paper Recycling bear the logistical, distribution and operational costs of the programme.
Contact lens wearers can sign up on the Project 2×2 microsite to receive envelopes for free to store their blister packs. The initiative accepts all brands of contact lens blister packs, and not just the ones from Two Of A Kind. The company launched the recycling initiative in October last year and its microsite on Jan 1 this year.
A recyclable bag can be collected from the 17 Capitol Optical branches across Singapore. The bag has two compartments – one for the blister pack and the other for its aluminium foil lid.
Those who return bags filled with at least 60 blisters to any Capital Optical branch can claim a $5 voucher.
Read more here.
Source: The Straits Times, 22 January 2020