If you have plastic pill bottles lying around — and, really, who doesn't — a Redditor has found a simple but brilliant way to reuse them while also showing off your green thumb.
The scoop
By simply cutting a small hole in a pill bottle's lid, this home gardener was able to propagate several plant cuttings. Even better, the bottle's small size means minimal water is needed to help the plants thrive.
The hack was shared in the r/Propagation subreddit, with the original poster writing that they've had success with olive cuttings using this method.
"These are perfect in that they are small, covered, require only a small amount of water, and free," they wrote.
After the cutting develops roots, the TikToker moves it to a slurry of water and either vermiculite or perlite for about a week to encourage root branching before moving it to a more permanent location.
How it's helping
It's no surprise that plastic pollution is a major problem facing our planet. More than 500 million tons of plastic are produced each year, a number that has doubled since 2000. Much of that ends up in landfills, incinerators, and waterways — in fact, it's estimated that more than 170 trillion pieces of plastic are in our oceans.
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What may be surprising is the role that pill bottles play in that pollution. Billions of prescriptions are filled each year in the United States, making these little plastic bottles ubiquitous across the country. And because of the type of plastic used to make pill bottles, they typically can't be recycled curbside (although they can sometimes be donated to nonprofits).
Finding ways to use less plastic is crucial for our environment, but when plastic does need to be used, finding ways to reuse or recycle it is just as important. Hacks like this help keep pill bottles out of our landfills and oceans while also promoting the circular economy.
For those who aren't gardeners, there are still plenty of useful ways to give new life to empty bottles. They're handy tools to keep around for spill-proof storage of small items, such as snacks and school supplies.
What everyone's saying
Commenters loved the simplicity of the hack, with many saying they had never thought of using empty bottles in this manner.
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Not enough time ⏳ "The pill bottles are such a good idea!" one wrote.
Others appreciated not just the ease of using something that they already have in their junk drawers, but also the cost savings that come with it.
"What a cool idea," one commenter wrote. "Frugal even."
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