When it comes to medicine bottles, if you're anything like most people, you have them in bathroom cabinets, closets, just about everywhere — and you're not sure what to do with them. One TikToker shared a solution to the pill bottle problem.
The scoop
Sarah Teresinski (@redeux_style), a self-proclaimed, sustainable stylist is sharing her favorite plastic upcycling hack — turning a medicine bottle into an ice pack.
🗣️ Which of these factors would most effectively motivate you to buy a refillable product?
🔘 Saving money 💰
🔘 Reducing plastic waste 🗑️
🔘 Using less shelf space at home 💁♀️
🔘 Getting easy refill deliveries 😎
🗳️ Click your choice to see results and speak your mind
"I literally use this all the time. It's a game-changer" she begins. "Medicine bottles. We all have them at some point, what do we do with them?"
The answer is super easy. Sarah goes on to explain that with her leftover medicine bottles, she simply removes the label (which can sometimes be tricky), cleans them very well, fills them up with water, and sticks them in the freezer.
"This is the best small ice pack for if you have kids for all the boo-boos, any type of injury," she explains. "You can use them to keep a small thing cold in lunch boxes. Never had one leak. They're the best small ice packs."
@redeux_style My fav Plastic Upcycle/Hack using old pill bottles! #hack #upcycle #rework #diy #thriftflip #homedecor #upcycling #upcycle #diy #thriftflip #homedecor #upcycles #rework #upcycling #thriftflip #organize #reuse #recycle #secondhandstyle #transform #oldtonew #upcycleddesign #makers #upcyclersoftiktok #makersoftiktok #upcycling ♬ Pure Imagination - Kathleen
How it's helping
We love simple tricks like this to give single-use plastics a new life. And these little pill bottles are certainly in need of a makeover. According to Cabinet, a company offering a sustainable alternative to medicine bottles, 194 billion plastic medicine bottles are produced each year. This is a problem, especially since the majority of plastic in the U.S. (95%) never gets recycled.
Small, sustainable hacks that you can implement at home are a great way to help cut down on the amount of plastic we're using, which inevitably helps cut down on the amount of plastic being produced.
And your upcycling doesn't have to stop with medicine bottles. There are tons of creative ways to reuse common household items — like using a parmesan cheese container lid to hold straws in place for mason jars or turning plastic bottles into adorable planters.
What everyone's saying
TikTokers were delighted to finally have a solution for the medicine bottles piling up in their cabinets.
"[Awesome]," one person wrote. "I hate throwing them away."
"You literally think of everything," another said.
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