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.
Add your voice! Click below to comment. ThriftyFun is powered by your wisdom!
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/
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.
Google places that do this. There are several.
The Malawi Project has ended. They are no longer excepting empty prescription bottles.
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.
well this is simply amazing!
Works on some, not all.
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.
Works great! Thanks for sharing!
SCRAP FABRIC IDEA
Step 1
I LOVE THIS IDEA
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.
I use mineral spirits on a rag.
Thank you this works wonderful!
The dishwasher is also a very efficient way to remove the label and the adhesive .
Add your voice! Click below to comment. ThriftyFun is powered by your wisdom!
