Optical Express marks World Ocean Day

Richard Davies, clinic manager of Optical Express Southampton with Jo Ruxton, Ocean Generation founder

Optical Express has donated £10,000 to environmental charity Ocean Generation, which works to combat human behaviour that pollutes marine environments.

The donation came ahead of World Ocean Day today – 8 June – which raises the profile of issues affecting marine life and encourages organisations and businesses to help protect and restore the seas.

The move follows a campaign by Optical Express that provided free laser eye and lens replacement surgery to qualified and pre-registration optometrists in the UK and Ireland. Everyone who received surgery was encouraged to give to Ocean Generation, supporting its educational programmes for young people and helping them make more responsible choices on the use of single-use plastics.

The campaign was designed to encourage patients and professionals to learn more about the environmental benefits of vision correction surgery. Discarded plastic contact lenses and their packaging are a major contributor to microplastic pollution in the ocean, harming marine wildlife and contaminating the food chain.

Optical Express founder and chief executive, David Moulsdale, said: “We’re delighted to make this donation to Ocean Generation, who are doing so much good work to raise awareness of the issue of single-use plastic, and to help people to change their behaviour.

“In eyecare, the environmental impact of our industry is often overlooked, but Optical Express wants to lead the decarbonisation of the industry and make it fully sustainable. 

“The economic and health benefits of vision correction surgery are already obvious, but patients should also be aware of how their eye care solutions impact the environment. As Ocean Generation knows, for both patients and professionals, education will be key to helping people make more sustainable choices.”

Jo Ruxton, Ocean Generation founder, pictured, said: “We’re so grateful to Optical Express for their support over the last few years, and for this donation. As an eye care provider, they stand out because they have realised the danger from people buying lots of glasses, as well as from people flushing contact lenses without even thinking about where they end up. 

“Optical Express have made a huge effort to tackle this. One of the ways they’ve done it is through eye surgery, which is not only an instant way to tackle poor eyesight, but it means the person lucky enough to have the treatment is not going to be a part of the plastic pollution problem.”

Jo, who made the documentary A Plastic Ocean, added: “Everyone involved in eye care should understand what happens to glasses at the end of their life, and what happens to contact lenses. People should be made very much aware of where those lenses should be disposed of, and the alternative solutions that are available. There are so many people who don’t realise they’re harming the environment, and that’s one message that could be given out in all eye clinics.”

 Optical Express has donated more than £33m to humanitarian and philanthropic projects in the UK and abroad over 30 years.