RIVER FALLS – The River Falls Lions Club is participating in a project in cooperation with Matthew 25 Ministries that allows for members of the community to return their old pill bottles to pharmacies and places around town.

The pill bottles will be donated to developing countries that are experiencing a shortage of plastics. According to the Matthew 25 Ministries website, the pill bottles are sterilized and reused in other countries.

Carole Mottaz from the Lions Club is one of the coordinators for this project.

“I volunteered to lead the endeavor with Jen Belz, owner of the Kinnic Veterinary Service,” Mottaz said. “So she and I cocoordinate this project. We take the labels off, then they get cleaned and sterilized in Baldwin and then they are used as is once they are sent to other countries. Many of the countries they are sent to just don’t have access to pill bottles.”

Their website also says that “In developing countries, medicines— when actually obtainable— are often dispensed into hands, pockets, leaves or any other available container.” This project allows for the empty containers to stay out of landfills, so it is a donation and a sustainable way to dispose of old pill bottles.

The pill bottles can be returned at several locations including: Family Fresh Pharmacy, Freeman Drug, Kinnic Veterinary Service, River Falls Police Department, First Congregational Church, St. Bridget Catholic Church, Wellhaven Senior Apartments and Ezekiel Lutheran Church.

The River Falls Lions Club became involved in the project after learning about it from the Roberts Lions Club. After that presentation, Mottaz felt that this project was a small way for the community to help in a big way.

“A gentleman from Baldwin came and did a presentation for our club and it seemed like such an easy, worthwhile project and it would be easy for us, but it would have a big impact there,” Mottaz said.

After seeing how much the Roberts Lions Club has been able to help by sending hundreds of bottles to Matthew 25 Ministries, located in Ohio, Mottaz felt that River Falls would be a good place for this project as well.

“Since we started, I get a comment from people all the time about how many pill bottles they have laying around and we didn’t know what to do with them, but we don’t want to just throw them away, so in terms of the right thing to do, we want to repurpose and if not that then recycle and this is a great way to help,” she said.

The donation sites will be available for the public to use for dropping off empty pill bottles for the foreseeable future. Mottaz sees this as a long-term endeavor.

“We haven’t got an end date for this so it'll just go as long as we feel it needs to, and people have been really happy to donate,” she said.

For more information about the project that is run by Matthew 25 Ministries and to see how the pill bottles are reused, visit their website at https://m25m.org/pillbottles/.

Mottaz feels like this is a great way to donate something small and it only takes a few minutes. “A piece of it that appeals to me, in the world we live in now, we can do small things that make a difference, and this is a great example of that,” she said. “It is something that everyone can do with relatively little effort and we are happy to help.”