CooperVision Plastic-Neutral Contact Lens Program Posts Industry-Leading First-Year Results

SAN RAMON, Calif.,, Feb. 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- One year after CooperVision established the first plastic neutral contact lens through a trailblazing partnership with Plastic Bank® the program has made a significant environmental and social impact worldwide:

• The equivalent of nearly 28 million plastic bottles have been prevented from polluting the oceans.
• Collectors representing 171 unique coastal communities have directly benefited from the CooperVision program. These individuals exchanged ocean-bound plastic for necessities such as clean water, groceries, school tuition, and even health insurance through the program which emphasizes both environmental and social impact equally.¹

CooperVision's partnership with Plastic Bank, a social enterprise that builds ethical recycling ecosystems in coastal communities and reprocesses the materials for reintroduction into the global supply chain, is the largest plastic neutrality initiative in the contact lens industry. Currently, 18 CooperVision subsidiaries in Europe and North America are participating with nine more in Asia, South America, and Europe slated to join this year. With this expanded scale, the program is expected to prevent the equivalent of nearly 90 million plastic bottles from reaching oceans in 2022—more than three times the amount collected in 2021.

CooperVision's plastic neutrality initiative, while unprecedented, is one of many milestones in the organization's journey to ever-greater sustainability. The company envisions a world where plastics are responsibly used, recovered, and reborn in perpetuity—and is taking steps to get there.

"We are constantly striving to identify novel solutions that not only address key sustainability challenges but also create new opportunities," said Dan McBride, Executive Vice President, Chief Operating Officer of CooperCompanies. "By reexamining our relationship with plastic, we can help protect the world's oceans and transform waste into a resource."

"There is no single approach that achieves sustainability, so we need to manage plastic use on many fronts," McBride continued. "There is no finish line either, so we invite contact lens wearers and the rest of the eye care industry to join us."

¹ 27,551,500 bottles prevented; 551,030 kg extracted; 171 communities impacted; 1,421 people impacted. "CooperVision's Impact," verified January 10, 2022

About Plastic Bank
Plastic Bank empowers the regenerative society. The social enterprise helps the world stop ocean plastic while improving the lives of collector communities. Plastic Bank builds ethical recycling ecosystems in coastal communities and reprocesses the materials for reintroduction into the global manufacturing supply chain. Collectors receive a premium for the materials they collect which helps them provide basic family necessities such as groceries, cooking fuel, school tuition, and health insurance. Plastic Bank's certified blockchain platform secures the entire transaction and provides real-time data visualization – allowing for transparency, traceability, and rapid scalability. The collected material is reborn as Social Plastic® which can be easily reintegrated into products and packaging as part of a closed-loop supply chain. Plastic Bank currently operates in Haiti, Brazil, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Egypt. Learn more at plasticbank.com.

About CooperVision
CooperVision, a division of CooperCompanies (NYSE:COO), is one of the world's leading manufacturers of contact lenses. The company produces a full array of daily disposable, two-week and monthly soft contact lenses that feature advanced materials and optics, and premium rigid gas permeable lenses for orthokeratology and scleral designs. CooperVision has a strong heritage of addressing the toughest vision challenges such as astigmatism, presbyopia, childhood myopia, and highly irregular corneas; and offers the most complete portfolio of spherical, toric and multifocal products available. Through a combination of innovative products and focused practitioner support, the company brings a refreshing perspective to the marketplace, creating real advantages for customers and wearers. For more information, visit www.coopervision.com.

About CooperCompanies
CooperCompanies ("Cooper") is a global medical device company publicly traded on the NYSE (NYSE:COO). Cooper operates through two business units, CooperVision and CooperSurgical. CooperVision brings a refreshing perspective on vision care with a commitment to developing a wide range of high-quality products for contact lens wearers and providing focused practitioner support. CooperSurgical is committed to advancing the health of women, babies and families with its diversified portfolio of products and services focusing on medical devices and fertility & genomics. Headquartered in San Ramon, Calif., Cooper has a workforce of more than 12,000 with products sold in over 100 countries. For more information, please visit www.coopercos.com. 

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SOURCE CooperVision