Woman reveals her dad's clever trick for reusing empty prescription pill bottles: 'This is so smart'

If you've ever had a medical prescription, then there's a good chance you've collected a pill bottle or two. Depending on your location, most of them probably ended up in the trash instead of the recycling.

Fortunately, TikToker Brooke (@brookeprince_) has an ingenious way to reuse those little orange bottles.

The scoop

While most prescription pill bottles are small, they can serve a large purpose once their primary function is over with. The bottles offer a surprising yet effective way to store your loose nails or craft materials. 

@brookeprince_ Pill bottles= great containers for building /craft supplies. #crohnsdisease #crohnsawareness #ibd #chronicillness #ibdawareness #chronicillnessawareness #chronicallyonline #pillbottle #reuse #recycle ♬ What a Wonderful World - Hana

As Brooke explained in her short video, you can even ensure that your makeshift storage containers are out of the way when you're not using them. Simply run a few screws through the cap of the bottle and attach it to an overhanging shelf or the bottom of a work station. 

You can then twist and unscrew your storage container whenever you need access. 

How it's helping

In general, you cannot usually put prescription bottles in your curbside recycling bin because of their plastic types and small sizes, which causes them to fall through sorting machinery. This results in many bottles ending up in the trash or scattered in the environment as litter.

Since most plastics are not biodegradable, they can persist for centuries until finally being worn down into microplastics. These tiny particles find their way into soil and waterways, even working their way into the food chain and our bodies. 

By finding additional uses for single-use plastics, you can help cut down on plastic pollution. 

There are also resources to inform you about the closest recycling centers that accept No. 5 plastic, the most common type of plastic used for prescription pill bottles. This can come in handy for anyone who may not have any use for emptied bottles. 

What everyone's saying

In the comments, a number of users were impressed with the ingenuity of the simple hack. 

"This is so smart!" one exclaimed. 

Should we be making prescription bottles out of paper? It's about time! ✅ I need to see it to believe it 🤔 It'll never work ❌ I don't care 🤷 Click your choice to see results and speak your mind.

"My dad did this with peanut butter jars in his workshop! How cool!" another user shared. 

A third commenter suggested their own uses for spare pill bottles: "Oh, also great for travel size. Thick lotions or hair creams. Things like that."

Get TCD's free newsletters for easy tips to save more, waste less, and make smarter choices — and earn up to $5,000 toward clean upgrades in TCD's exclusive Rewards Club.