Kimberly-Clark Professional Adds Safety Eyewear to Recycling Program

Kimberly-Clark Professional has expanded its recycling program, The RightCycle Program, to include protective eyewear from labs, cleanrooms and industrial facilities. Four different eyewear brands—Nemesis, Visio, Element and Unispec—will all be recycled through the program.

“Our customers are looking for ways to remove nontraditional items from their solid waste streams,” said Jill Walter, eye protection category manager at Kimberly-Clark Professional, in a statement. “Protective eyewear is an important addition to The RightCycle Program because it can make up a significant portion of waste for scientific and industrial facilities. For a facility with 200 employees who get a new pair of safety glasses each shift, that’s an estimated 1.3 metric tons of annual waste, or the weight of more than 88 car tires, which can now be diverted from the landfill.”

Protective eyewear is the third type of single-use personal protective equipment that can be recycled through The RightCycle Program, along with nitrile gloves and apparel and accessories.

The RightCycle Program launched in 2011, and since then, it has diverted more than 500 tons of waste from landfills by collecting and sending material to be recycled and made into new consumer goods.