Donating Used Eyeglasses Is a Poor Use of Resources Giving used eyeglasses to poor countries may please the donors, but it is not worth the high delivery costs, a new study has concluded, and a $10 donation would do more good. The study, led by Australian scientists and published in March in Optometry and Vision Science, found that only 7 percent of a test sample of 275 donated spectacles were usable. That raised the delivery cost to over $20 per usable pair. A simple eye exam and a set of ready-made glasses from China can be provided for just $10, the authors said. The rejected glasses in the study had scratched lenses, damaged frames or prescriptions so specifically aligned to the original owners" pupils that finding a match was unlikely. Used glasses also must be cleaned, assessed and shipped, adding to the cost. Then potential recipients often reject them as castoffs, dirty, unfashionable or designed for the opposite sex. "There may be an underlying assumption by providers that appearance is only of concern in wealthier communities," the study noted archly. About 87 percent of the world's population needing glasses live in poor or middle-income countries. Most are over age 50. More women than men need them, possibly because they do more eye-tiring work like sewing, said Kevin Frick, a health policy professor at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and one of the study's authors.