Could old contacts be contributing to micro-plastic waste?

What do you do with your old contact lenses? Scientists are hoping the answer isn’t flush them down the toilet or wash them down the sink.  

A new study shows that contact lenses could be contributing to micro-plastic waste that is creating pollution in our waters. 

These tiny pieces of plastic measuring no bigger than a sesame seed are considered micro-plastic waste.  The study has found that these small pollutants are ending up at the bottom of lakes and in our oceans which could be harming sea life.  

The idea to study the fate of contact lenses came when senior study author Rolf Halden, a professor and director of the Center for Environmental Health Engineering at Arizona State University’s Biodesign Institute, started to wonder whether there was existing research on what happened to contact lenses after use. There was none.

After finding no info on contact lens waste the professor decided to survey both contact lens wearers and non-wearers to find out how they were discarding lenses.  After surveying 139 individuals they found that roughly 15-20% of people were discarding them in the toilet or sink.  

Lead study author Charlie Rolsky, a doctoral student in biology at the same institution, said in a statement. “This is a pretty large number, considering roughly 45 million people in the U.S. alone wear contact lenses.”

After the lenses are flushed they end up in water treatment plants which are known to filter out waste, but since these filters are used for larger items contact lenses which can be flexible are slipping through the filters.  They also found that bacteria used to breakdown biological waste was ultimately breaking down the contacts into smaller pieces making them a contributor to micro-plastic waste.  

Moral of the story is when discarding contact lenses be sure to toss them in the waste basket instead of down the toilet or sink.  Taking this small step in how you dispose of your lenses could be helping the planet with micro-plastic waste. It could also be one small change that could help aquatic life along the way. 

More info on contact lens waste: https://www.livescience.com/63376-contact-lens-sewage-microplastics.html