LENSES WITH A (RE)PURPOSE

The days of popping out a demo lens and throwing it in the garbage are numbered.

It’s estimated that every two years, 420 million petroleum-based plastic demo lenses and redos are discarded into the country’s waste stream—and, possibly, oceans.

Costa wants to do something about that.

The Daytona Beach-based sunglass maker is already using recycled and repurposed materials (recycled plastics, fishing nets, bio material, etc.) in its frames and launched the innovative “Kick Plastic” program in 2015. Now, it’s debuted the first-ever plastic lens recycling program.

The Kick Plastic Lens Recycling Program provides collection boxes and encourages ECPs to save all unused plastic lenses (demo and Rx, sun and clear) and send them to program partner Piedmont Plastics, which will repurpose them into products like safety glasses, scuba masks, and motorcycle helmet shields.

Costa Kick Plastic Ambassadors will receive a special badge on the Costa ECP locator website. Non-Costa partners are also encouraged to join the program and can get a collection box with shipping instructions.

For more info, email lensrecycle@costadelmar.com. —SUSAN TARRANT

Did You Know?
Plastic, which can take over 400 years to decompose, is the No. 1 trash produced globally.

Glam x Tech

►Held March 21-24 in New York City, Vision Expo East was indeed a success, attracting an overall 2.6% increase in attendees and a 5% rise in registered optical buyers. Notably, Vision Expo reports that one-third of attendees represented new practices and optical locations.

And what did they see? Here are 3 key trends EB saw defined on the show floor:

TREND #1

Oversized Glam

Step aside, small sunnies. Big, bold, and bohemian-inspired sun silhouettes stole the show. Cue the paparazzi.

► Stock the Style:

• Salvatore Ferragamo style Gancini SF196S from Marchon Eyewear
• Spectaculars style Thelma from ClearVision Optical
• Swarovski style SK0230 from Marcolin

TREND #3

Extra-Smart Eyewear

The lens category is continuing to break the barriers of what a spectacle lens is capable of doing for a patient—both in design and performance. Today’s trend in lenses? That anything is possible.

► Tech to Note:

• Essilor’s Advanced Vision Accuracy (AVA) solution, pairing its premium lens designs with a new phoropter to provide refractions and lenses to 1/100th of a diopter
• Category-smashing photochromic contact lenses from Johnson & Johnson Vision Care and Transitions Optical
• Sunglass-level UV blocking in clear lenses from Zeiss Vision
• “Smart” eyewear (Rx’able, too) called Focals by North that not only look great, they can also project into your line of sight anything from your Uber's arrival time to walking directions, and allow you to access Alexa via a hidden microphone.

—KERRI ANN RAIMO + SUSAN TARRANT

Vision Expo Photo Book

See all the parties, programs, and fun from Vision Expo East on our Facebook page: http://bit.ly/EBatVEE