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If someone was to walk up to you in the street and offer you a second hand iPad, what would you do? I for one would be suspicious, but for the sake of the argument, suspicion is null and void. This is an opportunity not to be missed right? Of course it is. However, freebies are not always as they would seem. For instance, do we actually take note or think about what happens when we take a bag of old clothes to the charity shop? To all intents and purposes, it is the exchange of usable and saleable items and products for free, so the vendor must be making 100% profit, right? Well this misconception or blissful ignorance is something that opticians and ophthalmologists are suggesting is something that needs to be considered. In the example of the charity shop, once items have arrived, someone has to sort them, price them, in some cases package them, repair if needed, pay for electricity, pay staff (if not voluntary), pay costs for transactions and the list of outgoings goes on and on. In the case of donated glasses to those in need, the list it would seem is endless.
We have recently recognised areas around the world where glasses donation has been occurring including Washington as well as numerous UK based opticians with varying degrees of success and you are bound to have seen aid agencies promoting such causes. Washington have already outlawed the practice, with a huge outcry from US citizens disgusted by the decision. However, in a similar move to this, Australian studies have queried the true cost of 'free' glasses and have suggested that such causes are not all that good, in financial terms. The study by the International Centre for Eyecare Education weighed up the pro's and con's between buying and selling brand new eye wear over the costs implicated from donated glasses. The results were quite interesting to read:
- Of all spectacles donated, only around 7% are reusable
- The cost to deliver donated spectacles is around 2x the amount required to deliver new equivalents
- Many glasses arrived for inspection and quality control broken or cracked
- All spectacles had some degree of damage upon receipt
- Donated glasses are not full focimeter checked, which would incur further costs
- Although free, many glasses and frames once delivered are not used due to their appearance as old fashioned
- On average, the cost to supply a pair of recycled glasses is around 2x that of a brand new pair