A crafter has a genius way to reuse your empty pill bottles — just make sure you don't mistake the bottles' contents for medicine.
The scoop
A Redditor shared the creative hack to the r/ZeroWaste subreddit with a photo that pretty much said it all.
On display are more than a dozen pill bottles containing supplies such as pins, screws, bolts, balls, and clips. The original poster said they used the pill bottles to organize the various supplies, and its simplicity and effectiveness is immediately apparent.
Some visitors to the post admitted to doing a double take.
"Looked at the pic before reading the title and thought, those are some weird pills," one revealed.
The OP played along and replied: "Yeah, probably don't want to swallow any of this stuff. Though the stainless steel paint shaker balls would probably pass pretty smoothly."
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How it's helping
Once you get past the unexpected visuals of the bottles, it's easy to understand the benefits of this hack. For one thing, most crafting supplies are small and easy to lose. The pills provide a perfect home to keep them together, and the transparent casing means they're easy to find, too.
This hack also keeps the bottles out of the landfill or from being recycled.
As plastic breaks down in landfills, it can contribute to the production of methane, a planet-heating gas. It can also leak microplastics, which can get into the soil, water, and oceans with worrisome results.
Recycling is theoretically better, but much of the plastic that gets to a facility doesn't end up getting recycled. That's especially heightened with pill bottles that use a type of plastic called polypropylene that is often rejected, per Parcel Health. While scientists are hunting down better solutions for recycling, repurposing plastic items is preferable to throwing them in the bin.
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The way it looks 
For one thing, it can save consumers money by avoiding buying a new organizer for your supplies. Considering how many people have stacks of empty pill bottles, there are fortunately a lot of different hacks like this one.
Other potential uses include storing salad dressing, using them as gardening storage containers, and employing them as TSA-friendly travel-size containers.
What everyone's saying
Redditors were inspired by the OP's clever use of empty pill bottles.
"FINALLY I have literally been wondering what to use these for," one wrote. "Brilliant!"
"This is more aesthetically pleasing than it should be," another shared.
One Redditor revealed that the tradition ran in their family: "My great grandmother did this, and I still have her old pill bottles with some now vintage beads in them! She did it to be practical, but I love that it's a connection to her (her name and address are even on the bottles). Love this."
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