Here's how to recycle your eclipse glasses in Philadelphia while giving back to students abroad
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Old eclipse glasses are getting a second chance at Good Buy Supply on East Passyunk Avenue.
"I figured I have a space to collect them. I have a community that is probably looking for a place to drop them off and why not do it?" store owner Emily Rodia said.
Instead of the shades collecting dust or being thrown in our landfills, Rodia, the owner of the sustainable general store, wanted to find a way to extend their use.
"I didn't want to toss them away," Rodia said. "So, I found a company that's sending them to Latin America for their upcoming annular eclipse."
The South Philly shop will be collecting glasses throughout April. From there, they'll ship them over to a company called Eclipse Glasses USA which will then send them to students in Latin America.
"The lenses themselves are silver-black polymer. Polymer is a plastic product. It's not going to readily compost away," Roger Sarkis with Eclipse Glasses USA said.
Sarkis said he expects to receive over 50,000 pairs after word spread quickly on social media following the eclipse. They'll be sent to kindergarten through eighth-grade students in Chile and Argentina but he doesn't want it to stop there.
"I would like to try and send some to Title I schools in Hawaii," Sarkis said.
"You get to have the human experience, but then you get to enable someone else to have that experience," Sarkis said.
"It just gives so many more people the opportunity to see it," Rodia said.
If you can't drop them off at the store, Sarkis said you can also ship your ISO-certified glasses directly to the company until August 1 to ensure they make it in time for the eclipse in October.
You can mail them to Eclipse Glasses USA, LLC P.O. BOX 50571, Provo, UT 84605.
