Bausch + Lomb Reports Nearly 725,000 Pounds of Contact Lens, Lens Care and Eye Care Materials Collected and Recycled Through ONE By ONE Recycling Program

Bausch + Lomb Corporation (NYSE/TSX: BLCO), a leading global eye health company dedicated to helping people see better to live better, today announced its one-of-a-kind ONE by ONE Recycling program, created in collaboration with international recycling leader TerraCycle, has collected and recycled a total of 119,715,074 units, or 724,922 pounds, of used contact lenses, eye care and lens care materials in the United States – the equivalent of about five backyard swimming pools worth of water.^1,2

“Seeing this program continue to grow year after year reinforces how powerful collective action can be,” said Amy Butler, vice president, Global Environment, Health, Safety and Sustainability, Bausch + Lomb. “The ONE by ONE program makes it easy for eye care practices and patients to make a real, measurable difference, and this latest collection milestone demonstrates just how meaningful those small actions can be.”

Because of the small size and the types of plastics used, contact lenses, blister packs, multi-purpose solution caps and other used eye health-related materials are not typically accepted in local municipal recycling facilities and may inadvertently end up in landfills or waterways. In the U.S. alone, between six and 10 metric tons of contact lenses are estimated to enter wastewater each year. The ONE by ONE Recycling program helps prevent these materials from ending up in the environment.

“The amount of single-use material that moves through an eye care practice adds up quickly,” said Kriti Bhagat, OD, FAAO, and owner and founder, Eyediology Vision, Providence, RI. “Being able to recycle many of these items through the ONE by ONE program has become an important part of how we run our practice – it demonstrates our commitment to sustainability and helps our patients build positive recycling habits around the eye health materials they use each day.”

For every qualifying shipment of 10 pounds or more from a registered ONE by ONE Recycling program practice, a $1 per pound donation is made to Optometry Giving Sight – a global initiative dedicated to preventing blindness and vision impairment.

In addition to the ONE by ONE Recycling program, Bausch + Lomb offers the Every Contact Counts program in Canada, which has collected and recycled more than 78,269 pounds (5,841,644 million units) of used contact lenses, blister packs and top foils since launching in 2019.

Bausch + Lomb is committed to implementing, maintaining and enhancing sustainable business practices that support patients, customers, consumers, employees and communities around the world. Its impact initiatives are measured against several key environmental metrics called “FEWW” – fuel, energy, water and waste. Each Bausch + Lomb facility has annualized goals against these metrics to harness new opportunities and evolve in a sustainable way as the company delivers on its mission of helping people see better to live better.