Thousands of people will travel to northwest Ohio to view the eclipse through special glasses, and several area organizations want to make sure those glasses are reused instead of discarded after the April 8 event.
Keep Toledo/Lucas County Beautiful has partnered with Imagination Station, Destination Toledo, and the Toledo Lucas County Public Library to collect eclipse-viewing glasses for recycling and reuse in the days following the eclipse.
“There’s not much that is happening this year larger than the solar eclipse that is happening on April 8, and with that, like any large event, there will be potential for a lot of waste with this event, at least with the eclipse-glasses that everybody needs to view the eclipse happening,” said Adam Cassi, executive director of Keep Toledo/Lucas County Beautiful, at a news conference on Wednesday.
To combat that potential waste, designated collection boxes will be placed at Toledo Lucas County Libraries and Imagination Station from April 8 to April 18, Mr. Cassi said.
Glasses collected will be given to Astronomers without Borders, an organization that educates people internationally about astronomy and hosts programs. The glasses will be reused internationally to countries that are on the cusp of a solar eclipse.
Toledo will not experience another total solar eclipse, which is when the moon overshadows the sun in its totality, until 2099.
Nancy Eames, youth services coordinator for Toledo Lucas County Public Library, said the library’s branches hosting drop boxes is a fitting project because of the library’s overarching theme of reusability.
“We buy things and then lend them over so the community can share them,” she said. “When Keep Toledo/Lucas County Beautiful approached us about partnering on this project, it just seemed like a natural fit.”
She added the library was already planning programs for the solar eclipse in April, with libraries set to distribute eclipse glasses in March.
Imagination Station has also planned to host educational programs on top of hosting collection boxes, educating children and adults not just facts about solar eclipses but also how to look at them safely, said Sloan Eberly Mann, chief education officer for the science center.
“Safety is paramount during the eclipse,” Mrs. Sloan said. “During totality, which means the moon is completely blocking the light from the sun, it is safe to look up directly at the southern moon. There’s no risk for eye damage at that point, here in Toledo. That’s a little shy of two minutes.”
After that two-minute window, though, Mrs. Sloan said the rest of the two-and-a-half-hour event will require eye protection or viewing the eclipse through a kitchen colander.
“Folks can actually take a colander from their kitchen and hold it and let the sun pass through it,” she said. “They’ll be able to see the stages of the eclipse projected on the ground.”
She encourages residents to use eclipse glasses instead of sunglasses because eclipse glasses are 100 times darker than normal glasses.
Caleigh Heuring, director of marketing and communications at Destination Toledo, said the county can expect an influx of visitors coming to view the eclipse.
“We’re expecting a lot of visitors to come down from Michigan,” Ms. Heuring said. “The Ohio Department of Public Safety is predicting that we could basically double our size with this event, and we’re very excited to welcome all those people to our area.”
First Published January 24, 2024, 7:09 p.m.
