Yes, it's true! RE-SPECS has recently improved its green credentials and is now listed as a Registered Green Achiever. Under the Green Achiever Scheme, we get to show off our green side and to declare our commitment to reduce our environmental impact. Joining a growing number of businesses and NPOs worldwide, we keep up-to-date with the latest environmental news and issues and explore options to reduce energy usage and costs. We are proud of this step and continue to raise public awareness over the ease of salvaging, not wasting, glasses frames. And all of this, so that underprivileged people can have better lives and the planet can have a greener future.

When Tali came across RE-SPECS, she had been wearing glasses her parents had bought her two years earlier. "By the time we found RE-SPECS, Tali's glasses were literally falling apart," says her mom. "The right temple had broken off completely and that's how Tali had been walking around for two months."

Hard to believe?
 
"It wasn't easy,” says Tali. Friends aren’t very understanding when it comes to these things and I am fairly self-conscious as it is. I felt a little stupid, but I knew things were hard for my parents and they had to prioritize. I also knew they felt terrible about it, so I didn’t want to pressure them.”
 
Tali and her mom are not alone. Thanks to RE-SPECS Frames for the Needy, people like them are being helped every day. "It's not only a matter of needing glasses - it's also a matter of self-respect," reports her mom. As for Tali, she feels like a new person: "Life is like a yo-yo. Sometimes you are able to give and sometimes you need to receive. I just hope that one day, we'll be in the position that we can give back to others, just like they gave to us." 

That's Tali's story. 
 
You can help other people like Tali. Click here to find out how. 

1. REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE
Of the three Rs of the waste hierarchy (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle), glasses “recycling” is number 2. This means that glasses are reused for another person, a much more desirable level of waste minimization than traditional “recycling” which entails energy to re-form the product for reuse.
 
2. ZERO WASTE
Glasses recycling is aligned with the philosophy of “zero waste” which aims to ensure that products are (designed to be) repaired, refurbished, re-manufactured and generally reused. Reusing glasses frames extends their lifetime to their threshold maximum period of usage. Where they can no longer be reused, their component parts (screws, nose pieces, etc.) are salvaged to further extend their lifetime.
 
3. SUSTAINABLE CULTURE AND DEVELOPMENT
Supporters of sustainable culture and development advocate, among other things, 1) improving the efficiency of resource use and 2)reducing the waste stream going into the environment. Glasses recycling is a proactive expression of these two goals: it combats unnecessary wastage of a usable resource – and does this by helping the
needy.
 
4. MINIMIZING SOLID WASTE
According to the EPA on Municipal Solid Waste Generation (2007), plastics, metals and glass constitute over 25% of solid waste, a large percentage of which saw a dramatic increase in recycling rates over the last 60 years. Eyeglasses, made mostly of these 3 components, form an appreciably reusable and recyclable resource,  minimizing solid waste build-up in landfills.
 
5. PROMOTING A GREENER ENVIRONMENT
New York University (NYU) research indicates that the average American produces 1,609 pounds of waste each year. Recycling, composting and reuse, says NYU, can cut that waste stream by up to 75%. Glasses recycling cuts the waste stream and promotes a cleaner, greener environment. 
 
SOURCES: 
1. The Waste Hierarchy
2. Zero Waste
3. What is “Humane Sustainable Culture”?
4. Municipal Solid Waste Generation, Recycling, and Disposal in the United States: Facts and Figures for 2007
5. Sustainability Fast Facts