Green Daily

Eyeglasses have definitely gotten greener in the past few years. From bamboo specs to better recycling programs, you can now don glasses - and switch up your pairs - sans guilt.

When you've retired a pair, donate them to The Gift of Sight, Unite for Sight, or your local Lions Club (check here for club locales and mailing options). So, essentially, there's no excuse to not recycle your glasses! (At the very least, do like designer Stuart Haygarth and collect old specs to turn them into glittering masterpieces).

Unfortunately, unlike eyeglasses, contact lenses obviously require more maintenance - and that means more potential waste. From lens solution to protective cases, these products eventually get tossed, and many of them can't be easily recycled.

So what to do if you're a contact lens wearer? Well, as a long-wearing lens user, you're saving a ton of packaging and lenses from being thrown away, but you then must buy disinfectants and enzyme solutions. As a disposable lens wearer, you don't have to buy the solutions, but you're throwing away an awful lot of lenses. The good news: many of the saline, disinfectant, and enzyme solutions come in #2 plastic, which is generally recyclable.

Bottom line? In this case, if you can stand it, go with the glasses: they last longer, they can often be repaired and reused if broken, and there are tons of recycling programs available to cut down on waste.