How to Recycle Medicine Bottles From Walgreens

Empty and unwanted medicine bottles from Walgreens can clutter your medicine cabinet as well as other areas of your home. Instead of tossing the bottles in your home's trash can, you can recycle the bottles via the Walgreens Safe Medication Disposal Program or another medicine bottle recycle program. Recycling programs keep the bottles out of landfills and other waste processing centers. The programs also keep potentially hazardous substances found in the bottles from entering the water table and other areas.

Things You'll Need

• Tweezers
• Plastic, paper bag or container

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Instructions

Walgreens Safe Medication Disposal Program

• 1

  Use tweezers to peel the labels from the medicine bottles, if you don't want individuals at the recycling center to know your name and other personal information. Place the labels in your home's trash can.

• 2

  Place the medicine bottles in a plastic, paper or other type of bag or container.

• 3

  Take the bag or container to your area Walgreens' pharmacy counter and ask to purchase one or more Safe Medication Disposal Program envelopes. The envelopes are $2.99 (as of March 2011), and the cost of postage is included in the price of the bag. The program accepts medicine bottles that are empty as well as bottles containing unwanted drugs.

• 4

  Place your bottles in the envelope, seal the envelope closed, and drop it in a mailbox or take it to your area post office. You may need more than one envelope.

Whole Foods Medication Disposal Program

• 5

  Complete steps 1 and 2 in the "Walgreens Safe Medication Disposal Program" section.

• 6

  Open your computer's Internet browser. Click the "Preserve Gimme 5" link in the Resource section to locate a Whole Foods Market in your area that contains a Preserve Gimme 5 recycling center.

• 7

  Take the bag or container of medicine bottles to the Whole Foods Market in your area.

• 8

  Place the bottles in the Preserve Gimme 5 drop-off bin. The recycling program is free and accepts other plastic items. The recycling program only accepts empty medicine bottles.