Luke Taylor: What to do with eclipse glasses?

Luke Taylor, The News-Gazette, Champaign-Urbana, Ill.
·1 min read

Apr. 14—Now that the eclipse is over, what should we do with our glasses?

If you're not loving the idea of thousands of eclipse glasses going into landfills, there are a few other disposal options including recycling.

Courtney Kwong, recycling coordinator at Urbana Public Works, said the paperboard part of the glasses can be recycled at U-Cycle if you remove the lenses.

But wait before you start tearing your pair apart: while the next eclipse visible from North America is years away, other parts of the world will see eclipses much sooner.

Organizations like Astronomers Without Borders collect eclipse glasses and redistribute them to people around the world.

Staerkel Planetarium at Parkland College has a donation box in the lobby where you can drop yours off.

Eclipse Glasses USA also redistributes used glasses; they'll be sending some to Latin America for the October eclipse soon.

You can mail undamaged glasses in regular envelopes to:

Eclipse Glasses USA, LLC

PO BOX 50571

Provo, UT 84605

Eclipse glasses can also be used to look at the sun on a regular day, if that sounds exciting to you, or you can save them for the partial eclipse visible in 2028.

If you're holding onto yours, store them somewhere cool and dry so the plastic doesn't degrade and make sure the lenses don't get scratched or damaged.