Disposal of Unwanted Spectacles

Sat 29 Jan 2022, 18:56

Cornerstone at the Corner House is now happy to receive old spectacles and cases for passing onto charity. Open Monday - Saturday 10am - 1pm. 

Sat 29 Jan 2022, 11:12

Hi Geoff - I regret to inform you that Witney Specsavers does not take in old spectacles any more.. I was told that the charity they used to work with no longer exists. Yes I was surprised and that led me to start this thread.

From which I have gleaned some useful leads - Thanks

Sat 29 Jan 2022, 10:56

not sure what was meant , A reason not to use Specsavers

On top of this, every Specsavers store provides a glasses recycling service and encourages customers donate old glasses to be quality-checked and sent to people in need overseas. Specsavers also has an outreach program which sees its optometrists volunteering with The Fred Hollows Foundation NZ at the Pacific Eye Institute in Fiji.

Fri 28 Jan 2022, 20:21

Following advice given here I deposited some in Scrivens today; the young lady who relieved me off them seemed very grateful. Thank you all, Kris

Fri 28 Jan 2022, 18:18

Scrivens in Chippy take them too.

Thu 27 Jan 2022, 09:14

I took several pairs of spectacles to the Witney Oxfam shop recently, and the volunteer there told me they now use Scrivens opticians in the High Street to dispose of them. 

Wed 26 Jan 2022, 14:37

Metal frame seem to re-glaze more times. Apparently the “plasticisers “ for flexibility in organic chemistry frames don’t like being bent and heated at all and fracture. Provided not to distorted metal alloys are more versatile and repeatedly useful. Of the 3 titanium frames I’ve got only one snapped an arm when crystallised too far on being straightened up… again. If plastic or a cheaper metal allow composition then the total cost would have been 6-8 new frames. 

They are also beautifully lightweight on a broken nose too.

Wed 26 Jan 2022, 12:50

A good reason not to use Specsavers! 

I've also taken a variety of pairs of spectacles with prescription lenses into Oxfam in the past. Cotswolds Opticians in Witney also recycles -- at least for its own customers. They are very keen on avoiding waste, so may extend this service to others. Spectacles are sent to developing countries via charities. 

Cotswold Opticians are also happy to re-glaze old frames whenever possible, but not all of my old spectacle frames could be re-glazed. However some could, and that was one of the reasons why I opted to use them. 

Wed 26 Jan 2022, 12:35 (last edited on Wed 26 Jan 2022, 12:43)

Last I heard was that if you were discarding simple single `vision magnifying type reading glasses bought off the shelf or over the counter at a store for simple “age-related long-sightedness “ Oxfam etc were happy to take them.

If you have had a prescription made up by an optician and it is correcting for more visual aberrations then that might be more difficult to match up and hence less useful. But certain types of frame can be reused so of partial re-use value where people can afford to get the lenses ground correctly. That was a few years back and perhaps the avenues for recycling in part of components isn’t as easy. More waste. But also why should us rich northerners expect new everything and those foreign darkie wallahs fobbed off with our leavings?! Perhaps we should enforce a no-waste rule for everyone in the Circular Economy that is our last,best, hope: that ALL frames be made for lasting a few re-lensings, and robust material specified to achieve those aims.

I lashed out on Titanium frames 18+ years ago and still using them. Titanium is a wonder metal and wish we had so much of it to replace many we have to compromise with. Perhaps in t’ Oort Cloud there lurks a 25km rock, eh 

That spectacle frames are probably the biggest price rip-off going is an issue that needs political social economy intervention urgently is a public debate long overdue…

Wed 26 Jan 2022, 11:20

I think you can put in the recycling - I have in the past

Wed 26 Jan 2022, 11:12

Just been into Specsavers for new spectacles. They can no longer help customers get rid of  the old 'no longer needed' spectacles  Any ideas or it the refuse bin??.