Getting your player ready...
Updated Aug. 22, 2017, to clarify about eclipse glasses standards.
Now that the eclipse has come and gone, the next big question is hitting millions of sun worshippers around the U.S.:
What do I do with these eclipse glasses now?
According to , the easiest thing to do is to just keep them as a souvenir, perhaps pinned to a keepsake board. But if you’re desperate to declutter, here are some of their tips for what to do with them:
- Remove the solar filter lenses. Most of the commercially produced glasses are mostly cardboard which can be mixed in with paper recyclables, but the part that actually did the hard work during the eclipse is not.
- Talk to your local camera store. There may not be many left, but call a local camera shop to see if they can recycle the plastic film with their other film.
- Trash your plastic frames. The hard plastic frames used in some eclipse glasses are likely not acceptable with your usual plastics, but call your recycling provider to check before you toss.
- Save them for 2024. The last total eclipse on American soil was in 1979, but you won’t have to wait quite as long for the next one. On April 8, 2024, the . IMPORTANT: For your eclipse glasses to still be good 8 years from now, they must be manufactured to the adopted in 2015 (most of this year’s glasses complied to that standard, but look for that number to be printed somewhere on your glasses to be sure). If you remember warnings about glasses expiring after three years, that warning is outdated according to NASA, which says that
- Donate them. Itap not finalized yet, but Astronomers Without Borders plan to gather eclipse glasses to send to schools in South America, where the next total solar eclipse will cast its shadow in July 2019. .
In the meantime, relive the magic over and over with (including some cool shots from Carhenge outside Alliance, Neb.), or pop those glasses on for one last hurrah and .
