Eyeglasses, hearing aids, and cell phones are, for some reason, always seem to be terribly difficult to recycle, but are really about the easiest items to do so. They may be especially worthwhile because they are refurbished and reused, not recycled in the usual sense. That puts them a step higher in the solid waste hierarchy.

Eyeglasses can be handled in several ways locally. Most eye treatment people, such as New England Optics on Bath Road, will accept old glasses and ensure that they are reused. In addition, the local and Maine Lions Clubs have a tradition of collecting used eyeglasses. They send them to their own lab in Waldoboro where they are processed and distributed wherever they find the biggest need worldwide. In the same boxes, the Lions also collect complete hearing aids and old cell phones, refurbish them, and redistribute them worldwide. The phones are scrubbed and configured to only dial 911, then given to local police departments, or directly to women at risk, wherever they may be found.

There are 17 locations in Brunswick and the surrounding towns where the Freeport Lioness-Lions Club has receptacles for their collections. You can send an email to me, or to the Lions Club (scotswoman6@gmail.com ) for a complete list. Send a note if you know of a place to add a new collection box. This is a wonderful community service we can, and should all support.

The question of hearing aid batteries has resurfaced as well. Those are a big problem because they don’t last very long, so there are lots of them, we need to find a good way to deal with them after they fail, and the collection boxes the Lions put out are unable to accept the batteries.

The old mercury-based batteries were phased out several years ago, and most are now single-use zinc-based devices. They are no longer considered hazardous, and local officials have no place to drop them off except to put them into the blue bags as trash.

Actually, the button batteries used in hearing aids today contain a relatively large amount of steel and zinc that can be recovered and recycled. The question is where to take them. While nobody in town seems to be collecting regular single-use batteries (AA, AAA, C, D, etc.), the hearing aid batteries can be left at either of two locations.

The Miracle Ear facility at the corner of Maine Street and Railroad Avenue is one place, and the Beltone Hearing Center on Bath Road is the other. The office managers at both locations assure me you can just drop the batteries off at their desks, and they will get them recycled. In both cases, the batteries are collected, then every couple of weeks, someone picks them up for recycling, not simply to trash them after that. This is wonderful news for hearing aid wearers, as well as a generous and important service at the other end of the cycle that is offered without charge.

The Recycle Bin is a weekly column on what to recycle, what not to recycle, and why, in Brunswick. The public is encouraged to submit questions by email to brunsrecycleinfo@gmail.com. Harry Hopcroft is a member of the Brunswick Recycling and Sustainability Committee, though his opinions are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of the committee.