How do you recycle old medicine bottles?

While most medicine bottles are technically recyclable because they are made of polypropylene, they are often too small to be recycled by communities that use curbside pickup recycling programs. When this is the case, they can sometimes be recycled by pharmacies.

Most curbside recycling programs sort recyclables with a screening device that allows small items and debris to fall through; they are then collected and sent to a landfill. Because medicine bottles are typically small, they end up falling through this screen and going to the landfill. Communities with recycling programs may be able to provide information regarding the smallest size of recycling items they can handle. If they cannot handle medicine bottles and the local pharmacy does not recycle, the only choice is to remove the identifying information from the bottles and throw them in the trash.