Better Vision. Better Hearing. Better Georgia.

Eyeglass Recycling

More than 100,000 used eyeglasses are donated to the Lighthouse every year. We receive single vision eyeglasses, bifocals, reading glasses, prescription sunglasses, and non-prescription sunglasses. When the glasses arrive at the Lighthouse, they are cleaned and sorted into usable glasses, scratched and broken glasses, and glasses with gold components.

Usable Glasses

Any glasses that are still usable are then sorted by type (bifocals, single vision, reading, etc.), and read using a lensometer. If you have a group who would like to volunteer to clean and sort the glasses, we would love to have you! Please fill out a Group Volunteer Request form, and our volunteer coordinator will contact you. If you are interested in being a long-term volunteer, and would like to be trained on reading glasses with the lensometer, please contact Laura at lgriffin@lionslighthouse.org.

Scratched and Broken Glasses

All scratched and broken glasses are saved and given to local artists and fashion design students. The students make the parts into wearable dresses for our annual Night of Spectacles fundraiser. The fundraiser is a combination fashion show and silent auction, and it raises around $80,000 for our clinic, surgery, and hearing aid programs.

Glasses with Gold Components

Glasses with gold components are separated from the others at the beginning of the sorting process. The gold is melted and sold, and it nets around $5000 a year. It is enough to supply 200 Georgians with a new pair of glasses through our clinic program.

One of our shipments of glasses went to a young man named Pedro Ortega in Panama City. Pedro fit close to a thousand glasses at a number of fittings, but there was a pair of "coke bottle bottom" glasses that were never wanted. Pedro thought about throwing them out, but held onto them just in case. A missionary relates the rest of the story:

"One day [Pedro] had taken a box of glasses to another area and was in an upstairs apartment. Dozens of people had come by and Pedro was just about to close up his box of glasses when a young man came guiding and supporting a trembling little old man who shuffled along with a cane. They gingerly worked their way up the rickity wooden stairs and Pedro started to work through his wares. Nothing helped. He finally, as the last resort, pulled out the 'coke bottle' glasses and helped the old man put them on.

"Instant rejuvenation is about the only way to describe what happened next. The man stood up and shouted "Gloria a Dios!" (Glory to God). Then, without as much as a word of thanks or any other comment to anyone in the room, he forgot his cane, marched down the stairs unaided and disappeared.

- From a letter from John McKeeth, a missionary with CAM International in Panama.