YEAGERTOWN — Have you ever wondered what happens when your pill bottle is empty and then discarded? Ever think about what other uses they could have?

Well the Yeagertown Lions Club has thought about it and for the past six months have been collecting pill bottles.

In February, Barb Russler, director for the club, said she read a story in the February 2017 Lions Magazine about a Lions Club in Silver Springs, Md., that had collected empty pill bottles.

“I then brought the idea to a meeting and we started collecting them,” Russler said.

Linda and Bert Bowen said many third world countries do not have enough pill bottles to give to citizens who receive medicines from other organizations. Bert Bowen said when they run out of medicine bottles, citizens get their pills on pieces of paper.

Bowen said that was enough for them to want to collect the medicine bottles.

Russler said the plan was originally to collect the bottles and then send them to the group in Maryland. However, when the Lions in Silver Springs were called, they found out the club was no longer collecting them. The other group gave the Yeagertown Lions the name of the company they were sending the bottles to, which is based in Ohio.

Matthew 25: Ministries in Cincinnati, is an organization that has a recycling program at a facility in Blue Ash. The program collects the pill bottles. Once obtained, Linda Bowen said the bottles are completely cleaned and decontaminated from the previous medication, at which point they are placed into boxes and sent to third world countries.

The website for Matthew 25: Ministries does not state directly which countries benefits from the donation of pill bottles. They do, however, state that they have sent humanitarian aid to over 60 countries worldwide. In 2017, the ministry shipped 466 containers, equaling over 8 million pounds of material, which in the end aided 11, 650,000 people across the globe.

Linda Bowen said since they started collecting the pill bottles the club has collected over 2,000 bottles. Russler added that the club got a four box donation from another Lions club in Altoona.

“They heard about our project and went out to buy brand new bottles,” she explained.

Russler added that the Altoona club went to a pharmacy and purchased two boxes. When the pharmacy found out what they wanted the bottles for, the pharmacy then donated two additional boxes.

The Lions Club opted to collect pill bottles in addition to their other donation collections and events they do in the community.

“This was something in addition that we thought could be interesting to do,” Russler said. “I never personally thought about what happens after I’m done with a pill bottle.”

The club plans on continuing to collect bottles until December. At that point all bottles will be put into boxes and shipped to Matthew 25: Ministries.

“We are paying for the shipping of however many boxes we have,” Linda Bowen said.

To donate pill bottles they must be clean and have the label removed. Residents can call Linda Bowen at 667-6577 to donate pill bottles.