(PRESS RELEASE) LAVAL, QUEBEC, and TRENTON, N.J. — Bausch + Lomb, a leading global eye health business of Bausch Health Companies Inc. (NYSE/TSX: BHC) (“Bausch Health”), announced the launch of the Biotrue Eye Care Recycling program, the first and only eye care recycling program in the United States. The new program will allow consumers who participate in the program to properly recycle all brands of their eye drop single dose units, lens cases and lens solution caps, as well as Biotrue Hydration Boost Lubricant Eye Drops multi-dose bottles through a collaboration with TerraCycle, a world leader in the collection and repurposing of hard-to-recycle post-consumer waste.
“The Biotrue Eye Care Recycling program is a natural extension of our existing ONE by ONE contact lens recycling collaboration with TerraCycle that will allow us to offer consumers who participate in the program the ability to properly recycle smaller eye care packaging, as well as our new Biotrue Hydration Boost Lubricant Eye Drops multi-dose bottles for the first time in the United States,” said Joe Gordon, U.S. president, Bausch + Lomb. “As part of our ongoing commitment to sustainability, we are proud to launch this new program to help prevent these eye care materials from harming our environment.”
According to The Association of Plastic Recyclers, the industry standard screen size, which identifies and removes unrecyclable plastics, filters out small-sized materials as part of the recycling process1. Standard recycling facilities also only accept certain types of plastic. As a result, these eye care and lens care materials don’t typically end up getting processed and are diverted to landfills.
“Since our founding, TerraCycle has made it our mission to ‘Eliminate the Idea of Waste’ by recycling the non-recyclable. We look forward to building upon our five-year collaboration with Bausch + Lomb and offering a new program for eye care materials in the United States,” said Tom Szaky, founder and CEO, TerraCycle. “Like contact lenses, eye and lens care products and the materials associated with them are often overlooked in standard recycling practices, but have a huge impact on the buildup of environmental waste. With the Biotrue Eye Care Recycling Program, consumers now have a way to properly recycle these materials and help preserve our environment for future generations to come.”
To participate in the program, consumers can sign up on the TerraCycle Biotrue Eye Care Recycling program page. Once registered, consumers can collect their empty Biotrue Hydration Boost Lubricant Eye Drops multi-dose bottles and caps, as well as their eye drop single dose units, lens cases and lens solution caps* and mail them to TerraCycle using a pre-paid shipping label. When the waste arrives at the TerraCycle facility, it is cleaned and melted into hard plastic pellets that can be used to make new recycled products.
For more information on the Biotrue Eye Care Recycling program, visit -biotrue.com/recycling.