Old prescription glasses, readers, and sunglasses can restore clear sight for someone who cannot afford an exam or a new pair. The Lions Clubs run the main collection network in the United States, with drop boxes in everyday places, and several optical retailers participate too. Here is where to leave your glasses and what happens to them next.
The Lions Clubs' Recycle for Sight program is the main eyeglass donation network in the country. Collection boxes sit in libraries, banks, clinics, community centers, and retail stores, and donated glasses are sent to Lions Eyeglass Recycling Centers (LERCs) to be cleaned, graded, and redistributed. To find a drop-off or a local club, use the Lions Club Locator or call 1-800-74-SIGHT.
Many Walmart Vision Centers have eyeglass drop boxes, and a number of independent optical shops and chains host Lions-affiliated collection bins. If you are already running errands, an optical counter is often the most convenient place to leave a pair.
OneSight, now part of the EssilorLuxottica Foundation, runs vision-care programs that bring eye exams and glasses to underserved communities worldwide. Its clinics and partners are another channel through which donated and newly made eyewear reaches people who need vision correction.
Many optometry offices and eye clinics keep a collection box for used glasses and route them to recycling and reuse programs. If you have a regular eye doctor, ask at your next visit; dropping a pair there is simple and supports the same global reuse pipeline.
If you cannot find a nearby box, you can mail glasses to a Lions Eyeglass Recycling Center. Some faith and service organizations also collect eyewear for medical mission trips. Mailing is a good option for rural areas or for clearing out a larger collection at once.
Last updated June 2026. Errors: [email protected]
The Lions Clubs have collected used eyewear for decades through a simple pipeline. Glasses dropped in local boxes are gathered and shipped to a Lions Eyeglass Recycling Center, where volunteers clean each pair, measure its prescription with a lensometer, and sort it by strength. The graded glasses are then distributed to people in need, often during vision clinics and humanitarian trips in regions where an eye exam and new glasses are out of reach. A single donated pair can give someone the ability to read, work, or attend school.
Collection boxes accept a wide range of eyewear: prescription glasses of all strengths, reading glasses, prescription and non-prescription sunglasses, and frames. Many Lions boxes also accept used hearing aids, which are refurbished through related programs. Cases are welcome but not required. Even damaged frames are useful, since they can be harvested for parts or recycled responsibly, so you do not need to sort out the broken pairs yourself.
Uncorrected vision is one of the most common and most fixable disabilities in the world. Many people cannot afford an eye exam or a new pair of glasses, and blurred vision keeps children out of school and adults out of work. Donating eyewear you no longer use feeds a global supply that vision programs draw on to correct sight quickly and at low cost. It is one of the highest-impact donations relative to its size and effort.
For most people, dropping glasses in a local Lions box is the easiest route, and boxes are widespread. If there is no convenient box nearby, or if you are clearing out a large collection, mailing directly to a Lions Eyeglass Recycling Center is a practical alternative. The Lions Club Locator and the 1-800-74-SIGHT line can point you to the nearest center and confirm the current mailing address before you ship.
If you have old hearing aids, many of the same Lions collection points accept them. Hearing aids are refurbished and redistributed or used for parts through Lions hearing programs. Combining a hearing-aid donation with your eyewear drop-off puts two hard-to-recycle medical items to good use in a single trip. Check that your local box accepts hearing aids, since not every collection point does.