You can now recycle old eyeglasses at many La Poste branches in France

People in France can now recycle their old or damaged eyeglasses (lunettes) at some La Poste branches across the country.

The postal service has been operating the scheme since February 10, and 103 La Poste branches now offer it. The goal is to support more sustainable consumption.

Ophélie Vanbremeersch, founder of her own recycling glasses business Lunettes de Zac, has worked with La Poste to launch the scheme. 

She said that the business model “works” and that she sold around 6,500 recycled pairs last year.

As for the post office service, “it's the small brands that we promote here”, she said. “As a result, they have a second life and are still half the price.”

Les Lunettes de Zac estimates that there are 110 million abandoned pairs of glasses and sunglasses sitting in people’s drawers across France.

One branch of La Poste in Le Touquet (Pas-de-Calais, Hauts-de-France), has already collected around 50 pairs of glasses and sunglasses.

“We have a collection box where people can deposit all types of glasses: children’s, sunglasses, broken pairs,” said Muriel Amon, commercial manager at La Poste in Le Touquet, to TF1.

The deposited glasses are then sent to a workshop to be fixed (if possible). They are cleaned and polished, and given new parts or lenses if needed. Each pair takes around 20 minutes to fix.

Around 40% are not fixable and must be recycled. But the rest are fixed and resold, and put back on sale priced around 40-50% of the same models if they were sold new. They are sold online, in the Lunettes de Zac shops in Lille and Amiens, or in partner stores.

Where can I deposit my old glasses?

You do not necessarily have to go to La Poste to deposit old glasses; Lunettes de Zac also operates around 900 deposit points across the country. 

You can see a map of the closest place to deposit glasses (including La Poste branches) on the Lunettes de Zac website here.