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Americans spent $445 million replacing lost eyeglasses last year; one small company aims to come to the rescue by selling tiny tubes of plastic that shrink unobtrusively onto the eyepiece of spectacles, carrying a code and a phone number. Finders of registered glasses get a small reward, while their owners save hundreds on a new pair, the Boston Globe reports.

The brainchild of a man who lost two pairs of glasses, at $400 a pop, in less than 6 months, Eyeglass Rescue has recovered over 4,000 pairs of glasses over the past few years. That number is likely to rise when CVS and Walgreen's start selling the $15 kits online, as they are planning to do soon. (Read more Massachusetts stories.)