After many times of trying to remove labels from empty pill bottles to remove my identity from them before discarding them, I hit on a new way tonight. I was standing at my kitchen sink, next to the microwave. I filled my empty pill bottle with water, sat it in the microwave, heated the water in the micro for a few seconds or minutes. I removed the bottle from the microwave, dumped the water out and just like that the label peeled right off that bottle. No more struggling with labels for me.
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No electricity version:
Vegetable oil or baby oil works to remove the stickiness, without wasting electricity. Peel off what you can and then wipe or spray on the oil, let it soak in for 15 mins or so, then peel.
All medication bottles are recyclable too. They are either #1 or #2 plastic and can be recycled anywhere, even your recycle box from your trash service.
All of my translucent orange bottles are 5s. Our local recycling only takes 1s & 2s.
I have never found this to work.
Baby oil is made from petroleum, so vegetable oil or a microwave is the greener way to do it.
You can also donate your pill bottles to organizations in Africa. Typically medication is dispensed in a paper envelope there, which is easily lost and doesnt protect the medication, so they ask for pill bottle donations. Heres a link to the organization to send it to, as well as how to prepare them: m25m.org/
I've become a firm believer in reusing and repurposing item. My pill bottle hold my heirloom seeds and plastic spice containers are my seed starting pods. No plastic straws either, but the worst are qtips that have the plastic center
A hairdryer works great, too! That's what I use to get the labels off prescription bottles. I also use it for getting price stickers off packages and books.
WD40 removes them quickly with no adhesive residue left on the bottle
Thank you, thank you, thank you!! I discard many bottles every month, and remove the labels with my fingernails. NO MORE! Hurray! I wouldn't have thought of this!
There is a place you can help other people a world away. it is called The Malawi project. if you send your empty prescription bottles you will be helping needy people keep their medicines from breaking apart.
Thanks for your suggestion. Works great. Do not over heat, no more than 20 seconds for two bottles. Be careful, very hot.
How do you send them? We had a program to do this but they stopped taking them.
Where can we send them I can pass this on to people who clean houses as a living and stop put them in landfill.
Just tried this. It worked like a charm. Thank you for the information, it really save me a lot of time.
The Malawi Project has ended. They are no longer excepting empty prescription bottles.
This organization accepts clean pill bottles.
Website: m25m.org/pillbottles
Review and Fact-check of this organization...
www.fox19.com/story/24257290/reality-check-matthew-25-ministries/
This is a great idea. I like to keep the bigger RX bottles to put little items in them for storage, like my sewing things. Pins, needles, paper clips, and items like that.
Another way to remove lables from med bottles or just about anything is use a blow dryer and heat the lable up for a few seconds, then remove them.
Works on some, not all.
hair dryer only takes the label not the sticky part.
Perfect!!! Thank you for this suggestion it really works like a charm. I put the bigger pill bottles in the microwave for 25 seconds and then peeled the labels off like a breeze.
This did not work for me on Express Scripts/Medco labels... bummer!
Publix' Rx bottles/labels are very easy to remove without any special effort required.
SCRAP FABRIC IDEA
Step 1
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THANK YOU FOR TELLING ABOUT DOING THIS. I ABSOLUTELY LOVE THIS IDEA
Thank you for this! Works like a charm for super stubborn labels.
If using a microwave, be absolutely certain you remove any remainder of the foil seal which may have covered the mouth of the bottle. Otherwise you may start a fire in the microwave.
The boiling in a pot will remove the lables, but how do you remove the glue from the bottles. I have like 200 bottles to do.
Thank you this works wonderful!
The dishwasher is also a very efficient way to remove the label and the adhesive .
This is amazing. 20 seconds in my microwave and the bottle is cool enough to handle and the labels peel off completely with no effort.
Thank you so much, a wonderful life hack.
I dissolve Oxi Clean granules in hot water and soak the containers for 10-20 minutes. Label falls right off. Works on store stickers as well.
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