(https://recyclenation.com/2014/08/recycle-medicine-bottles/)

An empty medicine bottle is considered waste. I take a lot of different medications daily so I end up with a lot of empty orange bottles that I don’t know what to do with. When I say a lot I mean multiple bags full of empty pill bottles over the years. My pharmacy does not have a take back program so I assume many people will simply throw them away after the course of 30 days where they get another bottle that will become empty and repeat that cycle. These are made of a nice plastic and could be reused and there are places to ship them to so they don’t end up in landfills but despite my collection (which includes my sister’s and parents) has been growing. I don’t have the energy or reminders to find a box, create a shipping label, potentially pay for it, print it out, then package it all, tape the box, and then ship it off. The amount of tasks it requires creates a stall in my brain. It fills with clutter and static, then I decide to simply deal with it later. There are also interesting crafts that they can be used for, I have seen people attach the individual bottles to the bulbs of Christmas lights to decorate dorms. My friend used to make earrings out of unconventional items so these could work too albeit a bit large (some do like bulky earrings and jewelry). I have seen them as storage of small objects, I bought a bag of jewelry making supplies a few years ago at a thrift store and some of the beads were inside of old medicine bottles. I have also seen the bottles used for geocache containers which is brilliant since they are generally waterproof.

(https://spiritclouds.square.site/product/pill-bottle-led-string-lights/5)

An empty medicine bottle is considered waste as it has finished its original purpose, to hold medication in a uv resident enclosed space that keeps the medication fresh and safe to use. It contains a label which shows the ownership of the medication, the type, amount, how to take it, and when the pills inside expire. The medicine bottle’s life cycle is considered over once the medication runs out, not to be reused as it is considered “contaminated” , unable to be reused for its original purpose by the pharmacy.
While the original use is lost, there is potential for reuse; we just need to be creative.