Pill bottles: those translucent orange soldiers that pile up all around us… in our drawers, cabinets, shelves… sometimes I wonder, if I had saved every empty pill bottle since I got sick could I build a small house by now?
One thing I have always hated the most about being sick, is how you often need more help than you can give back. I’d see those specials on TV and think: I want to build a Habitat for Humanity house or dig wells in Africa with Oprah! (this might be an insomnia induced thought, but the general sentiment still stands).
Okay, so I can’t dig a hole in the blazing African sun. There are still a lot of ways to help others. Like this, this is a project with an idea so simple, it’s brilliant. I’ve tried this myself so I can vouch for how easy it is to do and how good it feels to pass on something that is trash to you, but will be a treasure to others…
Imagine you’ve walked miles to a remote village hospital to receive any form of medical care you can find. You are given the medication you desperately needed and now you have to start the journey back home (often many miles). You don’t shake the pill bottle maraca as you walk because there is no pill bottle, (there was barely medicine). The pills bought in impoverished areas are often bought in huge quantities, in large jars, and doled out (if you’re lucky) wrapped in a tiny scrap of newspaper.
It doesn’t sound like a big deal at first. But the more I thought about it the more I realized: beyond the thought of just getting the medication home, what keeps the meds from swelling up from moisture by day 5? What keeps kids from getting into them? Or their getting lost? Those orange bottles that seem to accumulate so easily for us, can actually do more than you think for others…
How to Help:
Step 1:
When you finish your meds, save the bottle! This includes bottles you might receive over the counter like for Advil, Motrin, vitamin bottles, supplements – as long as the bottles aren’t too (Large bottles just cost too much to ship).
Step 2:
Follow the instructions for preparing the bottles
Step 3:
Throw the bottles in a box or manila envelope, when you have enough of them, mail it off!
The bottles are not wasted in anyway. Once the meds are finished, the families often use the bottles in 100 other ways (just think of how helpful it could be to have a container with a lid that seals). And if the bottle you send isn’t able to be used, it will be recycled.
The New Organization is called:
Matthew 25: Ministries
11060 Kenwood Road
Cincinnati, OH 45242
Note: I have nothing to do with this organization. They state they are an international humanitarian aid and disaster relief organization helping the poorest of the poor, locally, regionally, nationally and internationally regardless of race, creed or political persuasion across the US and worldwide. They were cited on many sites throughout my research.
Help Animals! You can also try contacting your local animal shelter, vet or animal organization, a lot of them are happy to receive donated pill bottles!
Ginger Ail 
I use empty, clean pill bottles as part of the insides for up cycled dog toys. No waste here!
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Lol. We have a pit bull who thinks a pill bottle all by itself is a glorious toy.
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JJRN: Haha! I love your dog can be entertained by a pill bottle. I think yours already serve a great purpose! 🙂
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I have been saving them because a friend “was”collecting them for her church to do something similar. Not sure if they are still doing it glad I saw this I can mail them out…
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Unfortunately I take a ton of meds. I have bottles will save 😊
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I use some of my bottles to gather flower seeds in the fall. Come spring I plant them rather than buying plants.
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As a retired postal worker, I can advise that a regular thin manila envelope isn’t enough protection. You will need to mail them in a padded envelope of some kind. This is a good idea because pill bottles aren’t recyclable where I live.
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Thank you, I certainly will contribute my empty bottles. When I worked in a large teaching hospital years ago, we routinely saved all 1cc bottles of preop meds. We only used a drop or two for preop on our ophthalmic surgery patients. The doctors took them when they did surgeries overseas.
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I gather my bottles and take them back to the pharmacy to be recycled.
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As far as I know the pharmacies throw them away. They can’t reuse them because of the residue in the bottle from the last prescription.
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If your municipality can recycle the small containers, don’t worry that the pill residue will make them unfit for recycling since there’s a thorough washing and heating process that will remove any traces of the drugs. If your municipality can’t recycle the vials, ask your pharmacy if it has a recycling program
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They wouldn’t accept mine and I felt so bad throwing them away. I will collect them and send them to be sent to Malawi. Thank you for the post!
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I took my empty bottles back to my local Walgreens (where I got the prescriptions) and they would not take them!! I keep meaning to contact their corporate office!!!
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i just recently said ” there must be some way other people can use these~”
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Thus is a great idea…I started saving mine and my husbands and have a bag filled already..
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Reblogged this on Writer's Zen Blog and commented:
Ok. This has nothing to do with writing. But it has a whole lot to do with zen and the act of kindnesses. I think this is a great idea. I’m going to do it and wanted to pass this information along.
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Our local pet shelter needs them
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Lori: what shelter?
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What does the shelter use them for?
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You should take this request to the Wal-Mart stores. They do recycle the pill bottles from the pharmacy but not to reuse them but to create new ones. Maybe them, or WalGreens or one of the other companies would do this to make a positive impact on life of others….
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Actually Wal-Mart doesn’t recycle them to make new one they just recycle them along with other plastic, they bale it up and actually pay ALOT of money for another company to come in and pick them up to recycle them, I work in the accounting office
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There was a youth club that would take the bottles. I lost my contact when he graduated high school. We have been saving bottles for some time. I have a box of them. I would love for them to go to good use. I don’t mind mailing the to you. We take quite a few medications.
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You might be interested to share the link to the FDA that tells your readers where to safely dispose of unused medicine. It’s not in the trash or toilet. I’m only trying to be helpful and protect our environment. Thanks. http://www.fda.gov/ForConsumers/ConsumerUpdates/ucm101653.htm
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Good article, thank you. But just fyi, the article says to flush medications and no medications should EVER be flushed down a toilet, as they can contaminate water supplies. I’m in the medical field and just recently heard this bit of info. Better to ask your pharmacy about a take back program. Mine has one, but certain meds (controlled substances, etc) need to be taken to special places, such as law enforcement, due to their nature.
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Actually, as someone who is a nurse, we are required to waste ALL unused portions of medications down a drain.
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We have a drop off, and they are taken to an incinerator.
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I can’t find anywhere in my post that I mention flushing medication, I agree with you, that should never be done. As exhausting as it can be, I always try to dispose of unused meds properly. Were you referring to a comment someone made? If I did say that somewhere in the post and just can’t find it through my brain fog, please let me know & I will fix that immediately 🙂
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The FDA article mentions flushing meds, not yours 🙂 Thank you for this great idea. I love to help people and save the earth at the same time.
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Actually certain controlled substances should be flushed so that other people or animals don’t ingest or absorb them and die.
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Interesting. When I supervised a group home for safety purposes, the RN trained us to place the unused pills in zip lock bag with hot water and wait for them to disolved, which usually only took a few minutes and you could sort of massage the the bag to help break down the pills quicker. Then we were to add fresh cat litter to the zip lock bag to absorb the liquid, then seal it and throw it out. We were never told to dispose of them down the drain into our water supply.
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We can take our out-dated and/or leftover meds to the police department and they will dispose of them. We have been placing our empty bottles in regular recycling bin.
Does this group want bottles with childproof caps or only regular snap-off caps?
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Great cause! Between my husband and I we could do an envelope a month. Sad but true. Glad it could help though!
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This is a very good ideal, i some times use them for my art painting when i have extra paint left i can reuse the paint again, they also come in handy for craft & hobby supply holders, like beads ect.. But i really like the ideal of this story, now some of my med bottles that are a little larger can hold a smaller med bottle with lid on it inside the bigger one which the big one’s lid fits back on just fine so the bigger ones will work to for sending off..
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Wouldn’t The Postage Be More Than The Cost Of The Bottles Themselves???
They Would Need To Also Be Further Sterilized…
You Would Think A Direct Donation Of Funds Would Work Out Close To This Same Result For All The Time And Troubles…
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The postage would not cost more than the bottles. And, because the senders of the bottles are footing the postage, it costs the recipients nothing but the time to sterilize the bottles.
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Right, but if you sent the money from the postage directly to someone in need, instead of spending it on postage, it could be put to much better use. For example, the few dollars needed to send the bottles could buy someone a round of generic antibiotics (or lots of other medications). Not to mention the money to fly and distribute the bottles from Indiana to Malawi. Also, whenever I have bought medicine in Africa it has come in factory blister packaging (from factories in India or China). They aren’t just loosely distributed and pored in someone’s hand, in my experience. I like the idea but it seems like a strange way to spend resources.
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I think the point is to assist not only in the lack of funding, but also in the lack of availability of these items. Why send American currency to a foreign country, where they then need to find a supplier of bottles/packaging, and pay to have them shipped, when you could have just sent the bottles they needed in the beginning.
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I thought the exact same thing. Add in the ecologocal impact of the shipping materials plus the cost of shipping many small parcels… meanwhile they can buy new for a few cents apiece. Sounds like a feel-good project that isn’t actually efficient.
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I’ve got way too many!!! Great idea! I’ll keep a few, for my projects. I can ship all in December since my husband take a lot of medicine.
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I have quite a few do you think someone could come and get all of them they are in boxes and trash bags
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William: I’m sorry to say I doubt they have the resources to do that. But you could always email the project and ask.
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Wow, I have not seen this before, nor did I know this could be done. I am definitely going to do this. Thanks for the information.
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Isn’t sending these bottles to Malawi recycling in its purist form? We are reducing our waste and reusing the bottles, which is the recycling motto. The great news is that this process excludes the large machinery (which pollutes the air) that is used to break down the plastics so they can be made into new products.
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Do you think they could they use test strip containers (the blood sugar test strip containers that diabetics use)? They are not child proof but have a flip top lid.
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I will start saving these bottles & sending them off to you!
Glad to help. 😉
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Rosemary: Thank you but I can’t take credit for doing anything other than writing the post. I didn’t start this program, I just heard about it, vetted it, tried it out and found it a very worthwhile project. So I thought I would share my experience. I have to admit I am sincerely humbled by the responses like yours.
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I never knew my used pill bottle could go on to help someone so in need. Think this would be a great project for our family reunion in Nov.
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Is this more specifically helpful than just recycling plastics?
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I would say YES. The people need pill bottles specifically. Isn’t part of the mantra “reuse”?
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Sent my first box off last week. Need to find the just the right point where I can send the most for the least price…
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Barbara: This is a great point. If I had a mail scale I could tell you the answer. Instead, I will take a photo of how many I am able to send next time and what it cost.
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Can you post a picture of the largest acceptable size bottle? Large is kind of subjective. Thank you.
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I get my prescriptions filled at Target, and they use red bottles. Would these still be welcome?
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We use them to make time capsules for family formation and youth group
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I have wanted to find something like this for years! Thank thank thank you!
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What about medicine bottles from the vet? We have several older dogs that take different medicines & have bottles left over from them? The only difference is on the lid, it has pics of animals,
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Gail: Great question, I never thought of the bottles you get from the Vet. According to what I’ve read, all medicine bottles are great as long as they didn’t contain toxic meds (such as chemo – I honestly think most people are aware enough to not use them anyway) and they ask you boil some water to clean them out. I think they are definitely worth sending & personally, I think the pics of the puppies on the lid make them more valuable (at least to me!)
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WOW people think these bottles are sterile from the pharmacy! LOL
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What about small bottles for liquid medications?
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This is a wonderful idea. Thanks for taking the time to write it here
I live in Canada, by any chance do you know of anyone doing the same thing here ? ? ?
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Drugs should never be sent down a water source. Our local sheriff office has a med drop off for both RX an over the counter drugs. The local ad shows a baby sucking on a bottle, filled with pills and capsules – enough to make you do the right thing. Reuse of any item is great way. Helping the under-privileged – in any country! Whateverso we do to the least of our brethren…
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This is such an amazing post! Ehat a great way to help another cause and save the landfills from all that plastic 💜
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This is amazing!! I’m so excited about this, my 9 yr old has a seizure disorder that sadly requires meds twice a day so we have accumulated so many of those prescription bottles they are stuffed in cabinets& drawers because no one recycles them! I will be sending mine in ASAP!! Thank you!!
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Is post price the only reason for not sending in large bottles? Half of my prescriptions come in quite large bottles (probably pushing six inches tall) and I’d spend the extra post.
Thank you
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Reblogged this on The Woods of My Heart.
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I remember when my dad had hospice they asked if I had kitty litter they mixed the meds crushed with the litter and then it could be thrown out. The liquid was ruined with the litter and the pills also. No flushing.
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You mentioned sending the bottles in an envelope, however I take four different medicines, four times a day… I’ve got serious spinal issues, and this is just my reality. I’ve been on various meds for years, and since I have never known what to do with the empty bottles (I think I always figured something would come up that they would be perfect for… Ta DA!), I’ve kept many of them… Probably hundreds. So I’m probably going to have to send a large box full. I guess my questions are: Is sending a box full of bottles ok?… and… How large of a bottle is too large? Thanks for sending the article and shedding light on my “problem”!
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I am with Art of Recycle in PA. We get lots of pill bottles and other small containers donated often. Will little plastic film containers work as well? We can send them to you regularly. I dont want to inundate you with them if you are already getting too many. How many is too much? Can you contact us?
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Just a couple of additional thoughts as I have been reading comments: Post Office has boxes that are all one price to send whatever you can stuff in the box and I suggest putting the smaller bottles inside the larger bottles to save space and send more at once. Thanks!
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For years I have been asking pharmacist about recycling or donating the bottles.Thank you
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Did you try to contact prescription vial manufacturers? Being a pharmacist myself, I’m thinking they might donate NEW bottles to your cause. If not them, contact McKesson Wholesale or Cardinal or AmerisourseBergen. I’m sure at least one of them will help you out! Great cause….lots of luck!
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Would it be possible to mail boxes of bottles? I have several hundred empty bottles of varying sizes that I would love to donate.
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This is a very good thing! One thing, though, that I would stress, is that you should wash them thoroughly before reusing. MEDICATIONS, though very helpful to YOU, can be devastatingly harmful to someone else! It’s easy to sterilize the containers, just put them through your dishwasher!
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I would not use the post office box that is one price to ship, this is a benefit if you have heavy items that would cost more to ship in your own box.. Bottles are light weight and would cost less then their one price shipping if you put them in your own box and ship.
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