Re-use Your Empty Prescription Pill Bottles

Chances are you have at least one prescription bottle lurking in your medicine cabinet at this very moment. What are you going to do with it when you refill your prescription or no longer have to take your medication? Many curbside recycling programs don't pickup prescription bottles.

Fortunately, you can drop off your Type 5 prescription bottles for recycling at a nearby Whole Foods Market, or you can mail your bottles directly to Preserve's Gimme 5 program (visit their website for a mailing address and instructions). If those suggestions don't suit you, however, you could always try out some of the following tips for re-using and recycling your empty prescription bottles.

SUGGESTIONS ON HOW TO RE-USE PRESCRIPTION/PILL BOTTLES

• Check with your local free clinic or veterinarian's office to see if they accept used prescription bottles. If they do, ask them for further instructions on how you can donate all your empty bottles.
• The American Foundation for Children with AIDS accepts empty, clean, amber/blue/green prescription bottles and sends them to Africa to be re-used over and over again at hospitals and pharmacies. Visit their website, AFCAIDS.org, or mail as many bottles as you have to:

  American Foundation for Children with AIDS
  6221 Blue Grass Avenue
  Harrisburg, PA 17112

• Use empty prescription bottles to mix and store powdered, tempera, or acrylic paints. Just dab a bit of paint on the lid to distinguish the color.
• Larger sized prescription bottles make excellent first-aid kits. They're just big enough to squeeze in folded alcohol pads, Band-Aids, a miniature tube of antiseptic ointment, and one or two cotton balls.
• After you've painted or covered several empty prescription bottles with colorful paper, glue the bottles onto a piece of cardboard, and place them in a desk drawer to organize office supplies like pens, pencils, paperclips, thumbtacks, staples, postage stamps, rubber bands, etc.
• Keep screws, tacks, small nails, nuts, bolts, and picture hooks organized and in one place inside prescription bottles.
• Always have safety pins available when you need them by keeping them in plastic prescription bottles.
• Create a sewing kit for travel or the workplace by putting a needle, thread, straight pins, safety pins, and spare buttons in a plastic prescription bottle
• A great use for prescription bottles is bobby pin storage. The bottle is the perfect size for these hairpins and its secure lid will save you time looking in cupboards and drawers when you're running late.
• Q-tips and other cotton swabs fit nicely inside prescription bottles and can be used for bathroom storage or travel.
• Empty prescription bottles are ideal for storing BBs and air-gun pellets. The contents will be securely stored, and the child-proof lid might come in handy.
• Store-bought garments almost always come with tiny packets of spare buttons or snaps. You can keep these inside an empty prescription bottle so you always know where to find them.
• These bottles fit perfectly inside your car's glove compartment or door cubby, and they're great for storing change or small amounts of cash for garage parking, toll fare, or the Laundromat.
• New Christmas tree lights usually come with packets of spare bulbs and fuses. Keep these in one place and with your other Christmas ornaments inside an empty prescription bottle and.
• Keep track of fishing hooks and lures by sealing them in plastic prescription bottles. Organize your tackle box by using several bottles to sort and store different angling accessories.
• Prescription bottles are just the right size for keeping inside board game boxes and storing dice, tokens, and other small game pieces that often go missing.
• Little beads, clasps, hooks, and other jewelry-making supplies can be organized and kept from spilling if stored in a prescription bottle.
• Craft glitter, sequins, confetti, and sand art can all be stored in plastic prescription bottles so they're organized and kept from spilling.
• An easy solution for keeping matches dry on boating, camping, and canoeing trips is to store them inside a plastic prescription bottle.
• It's common practice in senior citizen communities to place a list of pertinent personal and medical information inside a prescription bottle, and store it inside the freezer with a note on the refrigerator door to alert paramedics.
• If you or someone in your household wears braces, conveniently store those tiny orthodontic rubber bands inside a prescription bottle to avoid misplacement.

Reminder: before re-using, recycling, or even donating your empty prescription bottles, it's a good idea to wash them thoroughly in hot, soapy water and remove all the labels.