Swift Current Lions project helps to recycle eyeglasses to provide the gift of sight

The recycling of eyeglasses can make a big difference to people in developing countries who cannot afford a pair of glasses.

The Swift Current Lions Club is doing its part with the help of area residents to provide the gift of sight to others.

The club has collected over 3,000 used eyeglasses from Swift Current and area residents for its most recent shipment on Sept. 19. Swift Current Lions Club President Jim Parsons said they continue to receive good support from the community for this initiative.

“Tremendous support,” he noted. “In fact, on Friday a lady from Ponteix just brought me a duffel bag full. So the whole community is supporting it.”

Club members have been carrying out this project in the Swift Current area for around 20 years. He estimated they shipped around 38,000 used eyeglasses for recycling during this period.

Three optical dispensers in Swift Current – Vision Care, Optical Image and Walmart Vision Centre – are participating in the project. There is also a Lions

Club drop box in the centre court of the Swift Current Mall where people can drop off their used glasses.

“They’re sorted into good glasses and lenses and sunglasses,” he said. “And they take anything now, like broken ones. … You might get some, like a fellow that was a welder and if they’re badly speckled, you throw them out.”

Wes Vibert is the chair of the club’s eyeglass project. He collects used eyeglasses at the four locations and sort them.

“I keep track of how many we get and all the categories they’re in,” he said.

Each of the boxes for the most recent shipment was clearly marked to indicate the content, for example clear lens glasses with frames, dark glasses with frames or broken glasses.

“If they’re really badly broken, I just throw them out, but other than that, they go in a box by themselves and they can decide whether they can repair them or not,” he said.

The project will accept any kind of glasses, whether prescription, sun or safety glasses, and even separate lenses as well as broken glasses. Often, the glasses with broken or missing parts can be recycled, but there are exceptions.

“There has to be some indication that they’re going to be useful,” he said. “If not, I just toss them out and I don’t do that very often ... which is quite fortunate.”

The Swift Current project is part of a broader Lions Clubs International initiative, called the Lions Recycle for Sight program. After collection the glasses are taken to the nearest Lions eyeglass recycling centre, where it is sorted and the prescription of each pair is determined by a lensometer. The glasses are then cleaned and packaged for distribution to developing countries.

The eyeglasses from the Swift Current area are taken to the Canadian Lions Eyeglass Recycling Centre (CLERC) in Calgary. Lions volunteers will process the eyeglasses, and through a partnership with the Calgary Correctional Centre there is also an opportunity for offenders to contribute to society through their work to recycle eyewear.

Operation Eyesight started the program in 1996 at the Calgary Correctional Centre. The Lions took it over in 2003. Some glasses are still processed at the correctional facility, but about 80 per cent are now done by Lions volunteers in a rented bay at a warehouse in Calgary.

The weight of this recent shipment of used eyeglasses from Swift Current was around 360 pounds, including the pallet. It was transported to Calgary by Rosenau Transport at no cost.

“We really appreciate that,” Parsons said. “Rosenau is very good to us.”

The recycled eyeglasses will be given to people with vision problems during visits by Canadian optometrists to different developing countries around the world.

Over 6.1 million recycled eyeglasses from CLERC in Calgary have been distributed in 100 countries from Jan. 1, 1997 to June 30, 2022. These eyeglasses have been sent to 36 countries in Africa, 23 countries in South Asia, 13 countries in Central America, 11 countries in South America, 11 countries in Eastern Europe, and six countries in the Middle East.

“It’s unbelievable what they do with a number of glasses they send every year around the world and how many countries it goes to,” Vibert said. “That’s a really, really good project.”

People receive the recycled eyeglasses for free and it can make a real difference to their lives. Improved vision can mean better education for children and for adults an opportunity to be employed.