Why the Glass Bottle FAILED

[@FutureProofTV]

Go to ground.news/futureproof to get access to diverse perspectives all in one place. Subscribe through my link for as little as $1/month or get 40% off unlimited access this month only!

[@walnutsandbeastiality866]

Who killed the glass bottle...? 🤔💭 ,,Die, little glass Balla fool! [starts blasting off at some glass bottles] 💥 Cap your a~~! 💥 And your a~~! 💥 You want some too? Ice cold, baby! Oh, I knew I was the Chosen One!!" 😇 (Melvin "Big Smoke" Harris shooting at glass bottles as target practice, Grand Theft Auto San Andreas, 2004)

[@TimothySielbeck]

Aluminum replaced steel soda cans in the early '70s. I didn't see a plastic food/beverage bottle until very late '70s and glass was always the choice for soda. Until Coke got their asses sued off in the '80s because someone miss handled their 32 oz. soda bottle on a hot summer's day (many hours riding around in the trunk of a car) and dropped them causing them to burst rather violently.

[@dawfydd]

Hi you refered to two videos i wouldn't mind watching however- i can't find your link to them.

[@wakematta]

Why you didn't mention the Aluminium cans ?

[@FutureProofTV]

@@dawfydd Links in the description!

[@angelveda8651]

Here at my city in Mexico, buying a glass bottled soda costs like 5 pesos more than plastic, but if you're also returning another bottle it's like 10 pesos cheaper than a plastic bottle of the same size, by your 3rd soda you're already saving 10 pesos a bottle. Also this makes buying a 1lt glass bottle cheaper than a 750ml plastic bottle.

[@vihangabimsara4716]

Same here in sri lanka glass bottle is 90 rupees while plastic one is 120 rupees

[@marcelocoelho4107]

Similar to here in Brazil, that said we now also have returnable 2 liter plastic bottles, those end up being even cheaper and pay for the price of the bottle in 2 returns already.

[@CynthiaMcG]

In US states close to the Mexican border, we enjoy Mexican Coke, Fanta, and other Coca-Cola products.

[@El_King911]

Same for Argentina, we have less commonly returnable 1lt glass coke bottle but also 2lt plastic returnable one and they are cheaper than the full discard alternative.

[@CC0566]

that's what I was gonna say, most of latam has that system, idk why they didn't do that

[@Justachamp772]

1. They feel better (Expensive) 2. They taste better 3. No micro plastics problem (Healthy) 4. Reusable 5. Better for the environment I love European stuff and those laws for apple too is true

[@LutraLovegood]

How many times does a glass bottle need to be reused to be better than plastic bottles?

[@cheery-hex]

Agree! pop and beer taste sooo much better from a glass bottle. even from a can tastes better than from plastic

[@NAEVAN238]

but they break

[@FLPhotoCatcher]

@@NAEVAN238 Glass bottles are surprisingly tough.

[@20quid]

@@LutraLovegood It depends on what you mean by "better".

[@johnshields9202]

I'm 67 yrs old, a soda was 10 cents, 5 cent deposit included, kids would pick up bottles off road sides, and bushes. Return Soda bottles and beer bottles, for deposits. 4 empties get you 3 sodas, and a nickel.

[@markthompson4885]

yep i did that on the walk home from school pick up sota bottles and stop at the corner store and get a soda.

[@nightvigil]

I used to buy returnable 48ct cases of beer. Dirt cheap, $5.00 if you returned your old case intact. If one of my idiot friends broke a beer bottle, I'd charge him $5.00 because it was going to cost me $10.00 for my next case.

[@glennschemitsch8341]

2 cent for a pop bottle 5 cent for a quart beer bottle, 25 cent for a one gallon milk bottle. Handling was more than the cost to make a plastic bottle.

[@mac11380]

4 empties at 5 cent deposit each would be a total of 20 cents, enough for 2 sodas period. I do wish we still had the deposits.

[@scaredofghosts6813]

Your math is wrong

[@cturdo]

Glass bottles (and aluminum cans) were almost self-collecting due to their deposit. We've decided as a culture that plastic is easy to discard and now we know that plastic recycling is not actually happening as promised. No practical incentive to clean it up.

[@claytonberg721]

Where I am everything that you drink has a deposit, including glass bottles. It doesn't apply to things like mouthwash and cooking oil.

[@albing1397]

In Europe, thicker plastic bottles are "reused". This set up a new industry to make "urine sniffers" because people used these bottles for a toilet!

[@jamesslick4790]

People often DID actually throw away the returnable bottles in the "old" days. This was like FOUND MONEY when I was a kid. So even the bottles that ended up as litter, only to be recycled by 10 year old kids saving up to buy some records. LOL.

[@jamesslick4790]

Where I live there's no deposit/return for aluminum cans, HOWEVER, Metal recyclers will BUY them from you. I do THAT, instead of putting them in my municipal recycling bin, Because I want the money, even if it is just a few bucks, It's MY aluminum! (Meaning that I have changed little since 1972, LOL)

[@alxndrmzksm8387]

Here in the Philippines, glass bottles exist in equilibrium with plastic bottles for soft drinks, glass bottle drinks sold in local stores are cheaper than plastic

[@Juigfd]

Same in Togo (West Africa)

[@TriggerzConnors]

You near at sari sari store? Same here, pre.(bro)

[@crazyjds]

Normally glass bottles are available where it’s near a bottling plant(cost more for further area due to bottle weight) and return collection system. Modern lifecycle studies also show using glass further always creates more carbon pollution due to weights vs fuel consumption during transport.

[@MayaMint]

In Uruguay too, both for soft drinks and beer.

[@jamess1787]

How do you guys get bottles back to be reused? 🤔

[@kingpotato3475]

glasss bottles just look better than plastic idk how they died

[@teodjuyg56]

And taste better..

[@Napalm_Candy]

@@teodjuyg56 EXACTLY!

[@coffee_2234]

​@@teodjuyg56agree

[@george.vasilev.reyner1916]

​@@teodjuyg56it's true

[@abdulsoleh7131]

​@@teodjuyg56bro, don't eat bottles..

[@TobiasDuncan]

Mexico still has returnable glass bottles for beer in several sizes for each brand. It works so well that it is the cheapest way to buy beer and pretty much every bottle gets returned , usually when you are buying more beer

[@Sadako2602]

Also for coke, you return them when you buy another bottle, which sadly is pretty much every day for most families.

[@moecitydon713]

Yeah my family still does this

[@annierminx]

I believe that's the case in all of latam tbh

[@annierminx]

@@Sadako2602 wdym sadly?, that's the best way in comparison to...buying yet another non-reusable plastic bottle everyday

[@aadreein]

​@@annierminxpretty sure they meant that it's sad that so much soda is consumed instead of healthier alternatives

[@davidmaisel8062]

When I was a little kid in the 70's we only had glass bottles. The upside was no plastic, the downside was broken glass everywhere.

[@toddsmith1617]

😂

[@swilleh_]

it was a nightmare if you wanted to ride a bicycle. Even in 2008~ when i was a kid i had a lot of broken glass around the city.

[@Start.a.curvolution]

I don't know if people outside of Germany know this, but a big thing when it comes to deposit bottles and the high return rate of these is that many people who have a low pension or live below the poverty line or are homeless like to spend a few hours on the weekend or on Spend the day collecting bottles at concerts or football games, for example, or looking for returnable bottles at train stations and on trains. There are people who carelessly leave cans and bottles behind or throw them away, but there are also people who intentionally leave returnable bottles next to trash cans. Some cities in Germany even have shelves for bottles so that people who collect these bottles don't reach into a trash can and possibly injure themselves on sharp-edged rubbish.

[@ramboturkey1926]

its the same in the US

@@ramboturkey1926not in every state but generally, many countries have adopted deposit systems (like Denmark, Sweden, Poland and the Netherlands).

[@hia5235]

In the US its obvious that the recyclers are no better than the garbage men and are only doing it for profit.

[@KatherynneF]

​@@ramboturkey1926 Where in the US do you have a deposit system? Here in Ontario we only have it for alcohol containers.

[@ramboturkey1926]

@@KatherynneF MI its for glass bottles and and soda cans, plastic bottles,

[@willyjoerockhead]

Back in the 70's we used to always get 10 cents back from each bottle at the 7-11.

[@1_kugelfisch]

in germany there werry popular for botteling stuf like lemonade and whater and we geht 20 cents per bottel back

[@tarstarkusz]

Glass soda bottles didn't take over the smaller sized bottles until the late 90s. As recently as the 70s, I recall buying 2liter glass bottles of soda. But by the end of the 70s, those were a thing of the past. But 16oz bottles were still very common into the late 90s. But they stopped the deposit thing in my state (PA) before I was even born, which was 1970.

[@bite-sizedshorts9635]

It was only 5 cents where I lived.

[@ericnewman2727]

I remember as a kid in North Carolina (1960s) scouring the neighborhood for empty bottles to take to the grocery store to supplement my weekly allowance - 2 cents for a regular bottle and 5 cents for the larger ones!

[@fulconandroadcone9488]

nothing cleans up trash like child labour. i remember collecting plastic bottles back in my days and taking to the store to get some candy or something

[@gobbletegook]

I had a paper route. I would collect so many bottles along the route that It was a big boost for my $$ compare to the papers we delivered.

[@zakuro8532]

its just the elderly nowadays

[@johnshields9202]

Same in Kansas 4 empties get 3 sodas and a nickel, look for bottles and return again.

[@seed_drill7135]

Did you take your money and give it to a man named Curtis Lowe?

[@Starmontdrawzproductions]

"people f--kin love mexican coke" couldnt be more real 🤣

[@gunslinger2261]

Exactly that’s all I buy after trying it for the first time a few years ago

[@RTYB]

Pretty much all of Latin America, you mean. Not only Mexicans.

[@Starmontdrawzproductions]

@@RTYB wdym

[@RTYB]

@@Starmontdrawzproductions All of Latin America loves coke, glass coke (made with sugar, not syrup). It's not a mexican thing, it's that way all over Latin America.

[@Starmontdrawzproductions]

@@RTYB im quoting the video.

[@adamspencer3702]

It kinda passed quietly last year, but Canada just banned 90% of all single use plastics in grocery stores by 2026 or something to that tone. So expect a lot more bottles, jars, and bring your own containers up here. Not sure if Future Proof is going to do a video on it? They've even announced a pilot here in Ottawa last week!

[@cdnron75]

That ban got overturned by the Federal Court, rightfully so. "The Federal Court in Canada has overturned the country's ban on single-use plastics, deeming the policy “unreasonable and unconstitutional.” The court found that the classification of plastics in the cabinet order was too broad to be listed as toxic under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act.".

[@DRT813]

I'm all for politicians taking action, but I have a friend living in rural Canada and they told me (unrelated to this planned ban) they really don't have a return or recycling system for glass. If so, the ban would just result in a lot of glass bottles getting thrown into the normal trash and ending up in landfills. Probably still better for the environment longterm, because no microplastics, but at the same time a huge waste of resources.

[@andreaweber8059]

@@DRT813 The thing is, if plastic was actually forbidden for bottles, count on it, a recycling system would be in place in no time. Plus, you can prescribe that also: Just make it so that whoever sells bottles has to take them back and give the customer a deposit (usually a few cents). Works fine in Germany.

[@adamspencer3702]

@@DRT813 My understanding is the ban is also coupled with federal support to ensure that businesses can adapt to new systems for packaging and waste management before the ban takes affect. Otherwise yes, the problem that you describe is very much a possibility.

[@blackmber]

What works in Germany might not work in Canada, because we have so much rural land and the cities are so spread out. I would say it could be implemented on a local level, but my city implemented a single use items ban this month, and they already got so many complaints that they are now in the process of repealing it.

[@lizz556]

Glass bottle (or aluminium cans/ plastic bottles) recyling is very standard in Germany and many different countries. Basically there are almost none drinking containers that get thrown out (except maybe wine bottles and similar). It is very common to buy beverages like juices, water, beer etc. and return it after consumption. You get between 25 ct and 8 ct per container (dependig on material) at EVERY supermarket.

[@legend-2890]

Asia and middle east and Africa and most of latin America don’t do any of this

[@Aliquis.frigus]

Same in Norway. 2 kr (0.2 eur) for smaller than 0.5 Liters, and 3 kr (0.3 eur) above it. Glass bottles are unfortunately not refundable anymore. Still recyclable though.

[@Call-me-Al]

Wine bottles go into generic clear or colored glass recycling in my country at least, as opposed to going to the beverage pant/pfant system.

[@GamersGoneExtinct]

Same in the Slovakia and Czechia and probably a lot of other European countries.

[@WindspielArt]

@@Call-me-Al its the same in Germany, we have containers that you can throw the glass bottles that are not returnable to a store. Most of the time there are 3 containers next to each other, one for white, one for brown and one for green glass.

[@satevo462]

I remember when I was a kid "taking out the trash" meant dragging a small, lightweight can of galvanized steel to the end of the driveway once a week. That's how much trash a home with 4 to 5 people produced in the 80's. Now, we have 2 giant rolling dumpsters, one for "recycling" and one for garbage. The garage men used to pick up the cans and dump it in the truck. Now they need a hydraulic lift flip the can in the truck.

[@RockandrollNegro]

Make Garbage Great Again

[@HotelPapa100]

We are a household of two, usually having breakfast and dinner at home. And a 17 l plastic bag usually serves for two weeks. Half of that is cat litter... I do drag about the same volume of glass, tin cans, PET bottles to the respective recycling sites, though.

[@PupperFlan]

I'm not going to refute your main point, as I think we have largely become a "replace it, don't repair it" society since the 80s, but the things you use as arguments don't relate to the volume of trash. The standardization of the size and shape of the trash cans was driven by the need to automate the system. Trash gets heavy, and people's back likely hurt after years of repetitive motion of dumping the can into a truck. Hydraulic lifts both save time and their backs, but requires standardized trash cans. That meant the cans likely grew in size to support the weight of the trash and the forces from the hydraulic. Secondly, separating recyclables from standard trash AT THE HOME severely cuts back on the amount of contaminants in recyclables, by simply not mixing those two things at all. Contamination basically can render your recyclables as non processable. And finally, we have learned a lot about trash and it's impact on the environment since the 80s. Of course the system would see changes in 40 years of progress.

[@mattb9664]

"Garbage Day..."

[@Kevin75668]

I take my trash out once a week, and I switched to a 4 gallon can in the kitchen because the larger ones never got half filled before they'd get funky. Some of my neighbors produce a volume of trash that seems to exceed the volume of their living space, on a weekly basis.

[@armorbearer9702]

(2:57) It is interesting that Americans had trouble returning glass bottles back in the day. I suppose this shows that people like convenience even back in the old days.

[@haardkaar]

In Sweden there was a standard bottle created ca. 1885 to be used by all the breweries. This type of bottle is still used to this day.. It means that different brewers can use he same type of bottles in a loop, in a pool system.

[@666Tomato666]

nice! while we have bottle recycling in Czechia, every manufacturer is using slightly different bottles, so not every bottle will be accepted by every shop.

[@SmallSpoonBrigade]

If you're going to use glass, that's how to do it. Otherwise, just use aluminum with a plastic liner. It's virtually 100% recyclable and any impurities mostly burn away with very little material lost in the process.

[@Fleischkopf]

cool. i just thought about that we also could make a recycling system for canned goods in glass 🤔

[@bansh3ee]

I love the iconic shape of Absolut Vodka bottles myself 😀

[@sSQNnify]

Same in Poland:) Well, almost. I would say that 90% of beers come out in standardized bottles (usually green or brown glass) and those are the one that have 'deposit value' - you pay some money exactly for the bottle itself (1zł - while usual beer price ranges from 3 to 5zł) but part of breweries also sells beers in not standardized bottles.

[@silvermica]

Yup, in the 1970s I remember glass Coca-Cola bottles - straight from vending machines, grocery stores, and even served in restaurants. The sides of the glass had a frost band where all the other bottles had touched/rubbed over time during the recycle process.

[@Ant-ym3mw]

Still the way in Mexico and latin America and use sugar not fructose

[@JeroenJA]

in the 90s i went with school to a pool with a glass bottle coca cola vending machine! the only one i ever saw working, was neat, the bottle were clamed and one was released that you could pull it out when you paid, but only some 15 bottles i think were available that way without refilling? i wonder most why they died out in bars and such... some 25 years ago bars in europe would never show a plastic soda bottle.. in my yough most actually used big soda glass bottles still! now.. not any more :( , i understand for household, and on the go, but bars that want to show them a bit more fancy .. i see more compentition for coca cola fancy drinks in glass bottles, but a coca cola one has becoma really rare sigth to see.. they really want to avoid to have to offer it more wildly... while we still have a national glass bottle return system here in Belgium.. for all the beer bottles and such, that coca cola can just easely use too...

[@jailbird1133]

​@@Ant-ym3mwwe get them in the US in the Midwest. I buy them at my local Dillons.

[@MegaLokopo]

Almost half of the drinks price. Now that is how you motivate people to recycle.

[@iainballas]

Those savings wouldn't ever pass on to consumers. We'd just be padding corporate profit margins.

[@MegaLokopo]

@@iainballas they don't lower prices, but they do end up raising prices slower than they otherwise would have. So you don't immediately see the savings but they do come over time. It's the same with self checkout, if they didn't have that prices today would be higher than they are now.

[@Alb410]

not the point@@iainballas

[@rmac3217]

@@MegaLokopo Wait, you think corporations have a limit on how much profit they are willing to make off you? BAHAHAHA! When they cut costs and staff they give themselves a big fat pay check, you get nothing.

[@resigned7739]

@@rmac3217 so why isn't coke more expensive now?

[@mistervacation23]

What p*ssed me off is when Heinz quit, putting ketchup in glass bottles

[@ThaumaturgistGuard]

in Bulgaria (and maybe other places), when you buy beer in glass bottles, the clerk will ask you if you bring empty ones, cuz, if you do, you will get reduced bill to pay deducing each bottle's established worth. Pretty handy, I must say.

[@shopwildvenus]

Yes same in Poland.

[@alysiannnn8274]

Not limited to beer, but family stores in the Philippines has that same system. You either pay additional money for deposit, or bring a similar bottle to the beverage you're buying in exchange for a new one. These are also done in soft drinks.

[@vaseklepic12]

Same here in Czechia, stores are legally mandated to accept them and those bottles are quite durable, breaking them is quite rare. You can even get durable carrying case for deposit (it's plastic but it gets reused many times, it's the same thing stores get the beer so it's much more eco friendly than cardboard) and we get trough a lot of beer

[@longiusaescius2537]

Nice

[@pandalace_]

Same in Rwanda

[@DarkViperAU]

Here in Australia, most supermarkets have glass bottled Pepsi and Coke. It is however prohibitively expensive, you are paying vastly more for glass. $8 AUD a litre versus getting a large plastic bottle at $2 AUD a litre. They only have smaller bottles as well, likely increasing the price. It is a luxury item they keep a small supply of.

[@Reeser-th5kl]

I believe you are correct, guess I'll have to stick with my Sprunk.

[@NoobJewishCraneDriver]

gta speedrunner

[@kaungkhantkyaw4410]

I believe you are incorrect, guess that's just your opinion. Perchance. Plastic bottles just feel more lighter than Glass bottles. Sure it's water but it's heavier now. They are something nice and not expensive. Ignoring that now huh? Nick, would you rather have a glass screen or a plastic screen... see? Also you only get small amounts of micro plastics from the plastic bottles. I can't even eat the plastic bottle for griefer 's sake. I guess that's what someone who plagiarized from the viper rambles podcast would spew.

[@danielcastrodelamata8873]

really cool to see you comment in a random video :)

[@evilgod03]

Yo it's a voice actor for gta 6 good to see you here dude

[@isturma]

There's a dairy here in IL that uses glass bottles, and the milk itself just straight up tastes better. There's a 3$ deposit, but you get credited when you return them.

[@RemoWilliams1227]

Oberweiss?

[@KougaGal]

God I miss Oberweiss

[@JohnGeorgeBauerBuis]

They just declared bankruptcy. Hopefully they find a new buyer.

[@DavionWest]

Same here in Dallas, Texas! I love it!

[@pinkroses135]

I loved Oberweis

[@mchenrynick]

The plastic problem isn't limited to just Coca Cola, or even just soda & drinks. Condiments, bottled beauty products, and even engine oil. It's so rare to find anything in glass or metal anymore.

[@jasons8479]

Another thing was glass bottles required a bottle opener to pry off the metal cap. Convenience stores and vending machines had one attached to the side of the cooler from which you pulled your bottled drink. Many people had one on their keychain. Of course, once you uncapped it, there was no recapping it. Though this wasn't a big problem, as it didn't take as long to consume since they ranged from only 6 to 12 oz, rather than the 16-20 oz plastic bottles common today.

[@arjix8738]

you can easily recap a glass bottle, it ain't as easy to seal it though

[@jasons8479]

@@arjix8738 I meant as far as opening and closing it repeatedly and effortlessly while on the go. Sure, you could reattach the cap if you had a pair of pliers or something similar handy. I don't remember them being possible to squeeze easily by hand without a tool. Then again, I was still young when their use was fading out.

[@paniagua._d]

mexicans open bottles with almost anything and seal them off with napkins or paper towels lol

[@piscessoedroen]

some glass bottles today has sealable metal cap. for some reason i've only ever seen it on those tiny glass bottles that's only the size of your hand

[@marks6663]

when I was a kid, the pop bottles were glass with screw on caps.

[@roelbernal8471]

In the Philippines, we still have bottled softdrinks that can be bought from small stores, you can return the bottle as a deposit and its surprisingly cheaper.

[@mk_rexx]

I think another factor why plastic won over glass too quickly is USA's car centrism and suburbanism. In the Philippines, urban planning sucks BUT every neighborhood has a sari-sari store in walking distance where you can buy and return your glass bottle. In developed countries, they instead have convenience stores and local groceries. In most of the USA, you either need a trip to a large supermarket from far away or have it delivered to you. Both favor plastic bottles because customers wouldn't like to return bottles themselves and retailers wouldn't like to take them either (without intervention).

[@RockandrollNegro]

@@mk_rexx Another reason Philippines still does bottle deposits is because they're socio-economically on par with the United States circa 1922. That's not a diss; I'm simply saying they're a century behind America in terms of economic policy, so the things that made sense in the US 102 years ago still make sense for developing countries like the Philippines, Mexico and the Dominican Republic.

[@opsatr]

I agree with the OP and first comment. I think the bigger factor is the fact we have small stores everywhere here. So it's very convenient for people to return bottles to these sari-sari stores (take note: plural) in their neighborhood that are sometimes just walking distance from their houses. As opposed to other countries where they buy in big grocery stores that may be a car-ride away at least... I will say though, that the Philippines is a much, much smaller country than the USA.

[@maksymisaiev1828]

@@opsatr problem comes from a couple of points: 1. Density of the population. This may play positive and negative role. Like in the USA example, people live quite far from shops and density in some areas so small that it is not feasible to collect all those bottles in the shop. On the other hand, when you have too populated area, there is not enough people or machines to collect all bottles from people. Imagine collecting thousands of bottles per day - that is not always achievable. 2. Convenience for the shops. While it is more cultural aspect, some small business is not entitled for collecting the glass bottles and the less efficient it is (time*money) the less availability for places to collect the glass.

[@mannmanuel7762]

German here. we have the Pfand system, where almost all beverage containers have a deposit on them. single use plastic bottles 25 cents, multi use plastic bottles 15 cents, glass containers (from soft drinks, Milk, some yoghurt glasses, ...) 8 cents. and if you buy a crate of bottles (for example 24 Coca Cola Bottles), it´s 3,10€ in total (1,50€ for the crate and 1,60€ (24x0,08€) for the bottles). so if you bring a big bag of empty single use plastic bottles, you can easily get 30 to 40 bucks, for example if your family collects them and you bring them to the supermarket once a month.

[@Shimeih]

Zimbabwean here. We still have coke glass bottles and plenty. Almost a 1 to 1 with plastic but they are cheaper. You pay a small fee if you are buying without an empty bottle but th great thing is that you can always go back and sell the empty bottle for the same price. As kids we would go around the neighbourhood asking for empty bottles and sell them at the supermarket for snack money.

[@Eddies_Bra-att-ha-grejer]

In Sweden until like 2004 we had plastic bottles that were returned and reused, not recycled, just like glass bottles. These were taken out of use because people kept returning them after having used them to store motor oil and stuff like that.

[@Schnittertm1]

We still have reuseable plastic bottles in standard circulation in Germany. In fact we have both reuseable plastic and glass bottles for most types of alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages, as well as one-time use containers from plastic or aluminium, which also have a deposit fee on them. In the latter case it is 25 cents, which is quite substantial, and makes most people return their one time use containers.

[@Eddies_Bra-att-ha-grejer]

@@Schnittertm1 Sweden still has reusable glass bottles, although they have gotten less and less common over time. Soda in glass bottles are since a few years back only distributed to restaurants and cafes. But anyway, I think reusable plastic bottles sound really unhygienic and it's insane how such a system apparently still exists. Plastic has a sorta porous surface and can't be properly cleaned unlike glass. By the way, aluminium cans and smaller plastic bottles only have a deposit fee of 1 SEK in Sweden, about 10 Eurocent. Larger plastic bottles are 2 SEK. The former were only 0.50 SEK until 2009, it was largely changed because the last decimal coin was taken out of circulation then.

[@pjodron]

@@Eddies_Bra-att-ha-grejer speaking of glassbottles in sweden, i read that systembolaget (the swedish monopol company of alcohol sales) was going to stop (or lessen atleast) the sales of alcohol in glass bottles. their site compares the manufacturing of diffrent glass bottles vs paper and plastic. (1/3 less with paper/pet/can) they also proudly proclaims that "wine in paper, pet or can taste the same as wine in a glass bottle" how much truth there is in that i cannot say

[@kellyrudd1920]

I remember getting a really scratched up Pepsi bottle when I was a kid. The paint felt neat on them too.

[@SunyJim]

That was the story we got with the Gallon plastic milk jugs as well when I was a kid. Probably wasn't actually true, and more likely that the industry found that a BS story or two in the news saved them a lot of money not having to pay for recycling.

[@Noizzed]

Gotta love that virtually all beverages today, and even water, contains hundreds of thousands of plastic particles inside.

[@franciscovessani6720]

its been 100 years since we started wrapping everything with plastic aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand, guess what, nothing happens. its safe.

[@oskariKN25]

@@franciscovessani6720 look at that. leading scientist of the field. Phd from the university of reddit. Hear me out but bunch of non degradable hydrocarbon polymer particles that are ever accumulating in our bodies and our bodies have no way of disposal from seems... I dunno... Unhealthy? Crazy I know.

[@Assywalker]

Spreading myths is tight!

[@illuminativon6542]

@@franciscovessani6720you have pfas inside you

[@devasc8958]

@@Assywalker you consume atleast one credit card worth of plastic per month

[@qynoi42]

I remember when I was a kid there was a store you could go to and refill your own containers with various flavors of soda. You'd pay by the volume of the container, if I remember correctly. Today, I've seen a store that lets you do that with various cleaning products, hand soaps, dish soap, detergent, etc. I have no idea of the scalability of such a model but I'd loved to see that sort of things more often.

[@jvckiwai7715]

I also have seen this and supermarkets where you can bring your own containers for buying fruits, veggies, nuts, flour and so on. I think that is such a good idea i absolutely love it. I think this should be something that should be done at every supermarket to help with that plastic problem

[@DashMan-g7z]

Funny enough, I think McDonald and others solved that issue accidentally.

[@ivyr336]

Should have kept that. Better for the environment.

[@XDarkGreyX]

I think of going to a store to get my shampoo bottle filled up every other shower or so, and then daydream a little bit about what it would be like. Sadly, I have never seen one myself, but I don't get around much, so there's that.

[@simulatednatas]

And at petrol stations you could have an option to choose petrol from diffrent companies

[@trevorhilyer]

I have been saying this for decades. When I was a child, I would pick up the various glass bottles and return them to the local mom and pop grocery store and get the cash or to buy candy. It made sense then and it still makes sense today. If they don’t want to go back to glass, then have deposit on ALL BEVERAGE AND PLASTIC PACKAGING. If the manufacturers of these containers will not do it, then hit them with an environmental tax. When it hurts their pocketbooks with the taxation, they will quickly embrace recycling. How many people are homeless? You have a workforce for collecting the bottles whether they are glass or plastic, the homeless or unemployed or children.

[@maksymisaiev1828]

Idea with containers is good until you jump into deep hole of small issues. Let's imagine that you have 3 companies, which sell glass liquid in the area. Who is responsible for containers? All 3 at the same time? Each should add own container? Other than price increase, which is bearable, area now has 3 containers and if you have more than 3 companies, amount of containers is growing rapidly. Now, what about imported stuff? Everyimporter also should add own container? What about small businesses like dozens of small breweries or distilation companies? Germany solution is a nice way, where it is on government level and the only part from the producer is by default pay this tax. If person won't return bottle, tax is in the system. If person returns the bottle, money goes back to the buyer. And containers are regualted, so you need one (or more, depending on demand) container. Issue may come from not enough containers though, which may happen. And about homeless point, you forget that people, who collecting those bottles creates garbage mess sometimes. Yeah, this works, but works not always in a good way for the environment.

[@trevorhilyer]

@@maksymisaiev1828 Actually, that isn’t the case at all. When I was young, I wasn’t homeless, but money was a problem because my father was a cheapskate. So, yes I collected bottles that I found and cashed them in for the deposits on them. The streets were cleaner back then as there wasn’t plastic debris all over. The same could happen today by instituting deposits on bottles and containers. You have to realize one major thing. If you have a monetary reason to pick up the plastic trash littering the streets, you will do it. Otherwise, most people pass it by. If money is tight for some people, it might make the difference of starving or being homeless.

[@jonc4403]

And the deposit needs to be big enough to keep up with inflation. 5 or 10 cents won't cut it any more, it needs to be a dollar a bottle. Do that, and there won't be a problem getting them back.

[@marcelorojas5925]

In South Africa you can choose between plastic, glass, or aluminum coke bottles. Glass bottles are mostly relegated to 300ml but you can get them at almost any restaurant throughout the country. There are also specialist stores like the sweet zone that sell 1.25L glass coke bottles, or takealot where you can buy 24 300ml bottles for $16.30.

[@LegendStormcrow]

You can in the US, but they're mostly plastic bottles and aluminum cans. We still have aluminum and glass bottles though. Just rare and expensive. Where I live, most glass cola is Mexican.

[@0o0ification]

I'd say it's a lot more likely that cola companies would wholesale switch to aluminum, rather than revert back to glass.

[@TheSliderW]

@@0o0ification Aluminium also has it's issues

[@desertstar223]

​@@TheSliderWLike what?

[@TheSliderW]

@@desertstar223 It can be hard to recycle if it has paint or has an inner plastic coating. Depending on the contents Al can leach into food causing poisoning. It's also a rare metal and sourcing/melting it can also cause pollution, etc ...

[@sirnik84]

Cleaning out my grandmothers garage we found her stash of mayonnaise jars. Because they use to jar mayo in a jar with the standard mason jar threads. So my thrifty grandma would save and wash the jars and reuse them when canning. I think because of my grandma I've always saved and washed jars as the glassware in my house. If you came over today and wanted a glass of water you'd get it in an old jar.

[@AnsiTiv]

Same!

[@mattrenaud7573]

I have a stash of Classico spaghetti sauce jars because they are a 1-1/2 pint mason jar. I use them for canning every year. I also use them to store bulk spices and other dry goods. If I have to buy something from the store that comes in a jar, I always look for products that use the standard size mason jar lid threads.

[@bite-sizedshorts9635]

Those jars are thinner and may break in a canner or pressure canner. My mother never used those jars for things that had to go in the canner. She would use them for tomatoes, pickles, relishes, and preserves. Those could be just filled and closed up to seal.

[@mrjaman3752]

Here in Colombia the glass bottles are still in use, ppl mainly use them in restaurants or just buy them in a nearby shop and return them later

[@quoralink688]

Here in India too

[@techcafe0]

a primary reason for the switch from glass to plastic bottles was shipping weight: plastic weighs a lot less than glass, lowering the manufacturer's shipping costs

[@aeriszona]

In Argentina we have reusable plastic bottles, they are thicker and once they are empty you bring them to a superparket to then be washed and sanitized for companies to reuse said bottles.

[@Xmateoc]

Igualmente la Coca de vidrio es la Coca de vidrio

[@Aliquis.frigus]

We used to have that in Norway. But the supermarket would just send them to the bottling plants for washing. The bottles felt much sturdier and better though.

[@juliana_f_c]

And glass coke is still served in bars and restaurants :)

[@Xmateoc]

@@juliana_f_c che loko, hablemos español

[@juanpiss]

latin america*** coca cola's operations in argentina are equally the same throught the entire continent, as they're operated by FEMSA

[@asd1234asd1234asd]

Glass Bottle Coca Cola is still popular in Hong Kong. Many older restaurants still carried them and they charged a premium for that. It was a special treat to get one once in a while but they are usually at least double or even triple the price of a regular bottle of coke. Recently, even convenient stores carry them as well.

[@sen5466]

Same in the Philippines (and I assume most of SEA as well). Most small shops here will serve soft drinks in glass bottles. You can request the drink to be put in a plastic container if you wantt to bring your drink with you.

[@belstar1128]

in Belgium they are only used in bars and restaurants now for some reason but they are not in shops .

[@BeautifulGrass]

​@@sen5466Yup! Always bought Coke at the supermarket. When I realized the sari-sari stores nearby still carried the glass bottles, I always buy the glass ones ever since, only buying the plastic/ can ones when I had to (going for staycations and the glass bottles can't fit into the tiny hotel fridges, etc). The glass bottle Cokes really taste a whole lot better and even keep fresh & carbonated for longer. They are also cheaper, P30.00 for a 750ml glass bottle of Coke. Just keep exchanging the used up bottles for the new ones so we don't have to pay a deposit anymore.

[@asd1234asd1234asd]

@@BeautifulGrass I am so jealous. A can of coke is just 5 dollar here but a smaller glass bottle of coke usually ask for 12 to 15 dollar. The larger one cost 27 dollar for me once . It is more expensive than that bowl of noodles I was eating.

[@gamagama69]

in the us its pretty standard to have mexican coke and sometimes other coke products like sprite in stores next to the single use drinks. usually its less for the same price. theres little 4 packs too, but their never sold in larger capacities and bougie restaurants

[@SDWNJ]

I was in northern Mexico in 1987 and they still used glass coke bottles. You could buy the coke with the bottle for 16 pesos or just the coke for 8 pesos. In order to buy just the coke you either had to bring an empty bottle to trade in or drink the coke in the store and turn in the empty bottle.

[@staringcorgi6475]

Mexican coke sold in us is only in glass

[@KomalPatel]

We use glass bottles in India too

[@Raidou_]

We still have glass bottles cokes, and a few years ago Pepsi also introduced a glass bottle Pepsi and I think also 7up

[@SDWNJ]

When I was a kid in the early 80s I visited relatives in northern Minnesota and they had soda from a store called the Pop Shop. It was in glass bottles which were only branded as ”Pop Shop” with only the caps telling what flavor they were. They would save the bottles to return to the store. I remember one of the flavors being strawberry.

[@Sadako2602]

We still do, for pretty much every flavor, you buy it for $15 (I think, I don't really buy it often) and return the bottle when you buy another one, it's like a token, you need to have a glass bottle to get a new one, or pay a deposit (you get it back if you return the bottle or you just keep it). We also do it for bigger plastic bottles (2 litres and 2.5 litres).

[@normbograham]

Soda, was sold by distributors. Distributors were local businesses, owned by a local wealthy family. Walmart crushed the local distributors, because they could move soda from one area to another.

[@Xaltar_]

Another point about the transition from glass to plastic with soft drinks (coke, pepsi, et al), it cost the same to the consumer. Think about that for just a second, it cost the same as buying a coke in a glass bottle without having a bottle to exchange. When the switch to plastic happened they ALL got away with a price hike that no one questioned. So, lets say a coke used to cost $1 (price varied with time and country) and you would get 30c back when you returned the bottle (again, varied depending on location and year), once the shift to plastic happened coke still cost $1 but you got nothing back. That is 30c more profit for Coca-Cola right at the point of sale (using these numbers) and that is before all the savings on rebottling, cleaning, collecting etc. Almost a 30% price hike that very few noticed and even fewer complained about.

[@kameljoe21]

I want to also point out back when they had bottle they had more local plants which reduced the cost to ship those bottles around.

[@achimdemus-holzhaeuser1233]

Yes as a consumer I love that squishy feeling of cheap plastic when I open a bottle and the pressure keeping it in form disappears and you nearly spill half of the bottle because your grip tightens while the bottle deforms in your hands .. pure bliss.

[@nakellold]

actually about 43% profit gain for coca cola (143% of 70c ≈ $1)

[@jaredhicks5655]

Glass bottle coca cola never fully went away, and they cost a lot more than can/plastic coca cola

[@bite-sizedshorts9635]

Those are some extremely high prices you're quoting. Drinks were only 25 to 35 cents when plastic started coming out. The deposit was 2 cents, rising to 5 cents at the very end. But consumers were making too much money to be bothered with a 5 cent deposit. The plastic bottles were around 50 cents when I first bought one. Now I can get a 16 ounce plastic bottle of Pepsi at the grocery store for 50 cents most of the time. The regular price is about $1 now, so I only buy them when they are on sale for 50 cents. Perhaps you live in California or some other place with outrageous prices. BTW, eggs are only $1.19 a dozen here. I'm in northeastern NC.

[@Scorponox93]

In mexico we still have glass bottles and we also have "returnable" plastic bottles that are thicker plastic so it can be cleaned and refilled. Only instead of being paid back for returning them we have to pay a deposit the first time and when we return the bottle we can either get the deposit back (only if it is the same store we bought from first and the cashier agrees to), or buy another bottle at a cheaper price. We also have several local brands that still sell soft drinks in glass bottles for seemingly no reason (though that's unfortunately changing lately).

[@inuendo6365]

You guys use real sugar too. When I lived closer to the border I loved going to Mexico for the BEST cola from smaller glass bottles.

[@QwoaX]

Nowadays, brands (here in Germany) like to use glass bottle to feel "premium" and mark up the price even more. Even Coca-cola does this. Here, they released a reusable 1L glass bottle that costs about 1.5-2x as much as the reusable 1L plastic ones (not counting the deposit) while weirdly enough, some local brands of soft drinks charge about the same amount whether you pick the glass or thick plastic bottles they offer.

[@Nicksonian]

Each Coke bottling facility had its own glass bottles with their city stamped on the bottom. When I was a kid in the 1960s, I loved checking the city on the bottle. Back in the 1990s, in my hometown of Annapolis, the city had to dig up some utility lines where the city dump used to be. They came across a treasure trove of Annapolis stamped Coke bottles. I took several home…which my wife (now ex) threw out.

[@oxjpmg5554]

I see why she became an ex😂

[@Nicksonian]

@@oxjpmg5554 Her theory was to throw away anything not used in the last six months…so she threw me away.

[@oxjpmg5554]

@@Nicksonian ouch 🤕. Sorry to hear that

[@lifeisshort.9869]

Boy...that escalated quickly. I mean that really got out of hand fast!

[@LittleTinSoldier1]

As a Canadian, I'm kinda shocked you didn't mention The Pop Shoppe. I'm old enough to remember it as a place to pick up filled bottles and return empties. Sadly, plastic helped win the Cola Wars, and The Pop Shoppe was a casualty. Lo and behold, they're back...but refillable means recyclable now.

[@coffee_2234]

Im glad that mexico still keep the glass bottles

[@herrerasauro7429]

Same in Brazil Given the option I always choose the glass one

[@Artofcarissa]

@@herrerasauro7429I remember seeing a commercial from Brazil for coke where it was actually a bottle made out of ice so it was eco friendly. Although idk how your tongue and lips wouldn’t stick to the ice like in A Christmas story 😂

[@Spartan00113]

Not only glass bottles, there are also reusable plastic Coca-Cola bottles available in Mexico in various sizes. You just take your reusable plastic bottle to your nearby store, and they sell you a filled bottle.

[@Angelmunoz_19]

Same in DR 🇩🇴

[@MattPin]

​@@herrerasauro7429 Plus since we have a coke factory in our city its cheaper, one 1l bottle of coke costs an average of 5R$ (1$) if you give back a glass bottle

[@SillyButWise]

I remember being a kid in the late 80s, the gas stations in Michigan would keep their cases of Coca-Cola outside. During the winter, extreme cold would sometimes burst the tops of the glass open. On one of these occasions, I licked the top of one of these freeze-burst bottles, eating the frozen overflow of soda that looked like an icee/slurpee. My mom yelled at me telling me how dangerous that was, because there could have been slivers of glass mixed in with the ice/frozen soda pop. I remember being terrified all night about possible glass that was making its way through my body, waiting to die any moment. Ahh, what a lovely childhood memory. Stupid thing to do, but a funny story to tell now that its over.

[@blackwaterpictures876]

The silly things we’d get scared of as kids

[@Fremek]

The glass is still inside you waiting for a good moment to attack! 😂

[@SillyButWise]

@@Fremek nah! I figure its gone the way of many a wooden splinter stuck in my finger through the years: its probably enveloped in micrometers of scar tissue. Trapped with nowhere to go. Then again, if you don't hear from me again, you know what happened....💀kzbin.infogaming/emoji/7ff574f2/emoji_u1f480.png

[@jameswood231]

Like dropping pull tabs on pop cans into the can before drinking.😮

[@supernintendo182]

lol tiny grains of glass will pass harmlessly through your system. Source: Ingested glass by mistake, nothing bad happened.

[@JTL1776]

GLASS IS BETTER.

[@hissnakeissolid2827]

Nice minutemen pfp

[@nupurchapkxd]

GLASS IS GLASS AND GLASS BRAKES JERRYRIGEVERYTHING

[@sllafytivarG]

​@nupurchapkxd What if I told you that East Germany made Über Glass that never breaks, and is still used in many Eastern German establishments to this day. Sadly the Glass was too strong and Western business refused to buy them since they can make profit frome people replacing their broken glass's, the Über Glass Bottles would remove that cash flow.

[@alicethegrinsecatz6011]

That's why Fritz-Lokal, one of Germany's most popular coke companies never sold a plastic bottle.

[@ok-vv5vo]

​@@nupurchapkxd breaks*

[@someone_someone722]

In Poland, you can get glass bottle subcribtions, where you basically pay a certain amount and get 4 trays of 24 small glass bottles (you can get less or more) every week. You can also get soft drinks, such as oranżada and I am pretty sure that you can also get Coca Cola or PepsiCo (or both) products.

[@JoseGasset]

Here in Venezuela, glass bottles had a come back since a few years ago due to the hyperinflation, theyŕe actually cheaper than plastic bottles and are retunable

[@thevikingbear2343]

Hey I'm from Venezuela and I remember the glass beer bottle economy we had back then before the crisis.

[@zimzimbar]

As a boy scout in New Zealand in the 1970's, we used to have annual "bottle drives" as a fund-raiser. We would go from door to door asking for people's empty bottles to return for a refund. I can remember hauling many, many wooden crates of a dozen beer bottles out of some houses...2 cents for a beer bottle and 5 cents for a large coke bottle.

[@danielsee1]

Why didn't you go out and pick up bottles of the street like we did?

[@communistpoultry]

they still sell glass bottles in Asia, I see coke bottled in glass like in the video (last week) and they are cheaper than the bottled plastic.

[@jacobbwalters8133]

Michigan has a deposit system with bottle return machines at every store as well. As a result, it has by far the highest return rate of any state in the United States.

[@TheNiteNinja19]

Assuming that the supermarkets can maintain their stink and recycling machines. In my town there are only two return facilities, so there's lines always backed up out the door. At that rate people just opt to throw their containers out.

[@bluephreakr]

Is it returning if it is crushing? y store crushes the bottles. Plastic can last for thousands of years. I cannot possibly understand why plastics are destroyed if they are robust enough to hold pounds of pressure _in excess_ of their design.

[@mr.funnyman9765]

I always just thought that the bottle returns were standard everywhere in the country

[@KatjeKat86]

What is need is to expand the bottle return to include sports drinks, juice and other beverages like that. Between that and regular recycling means there would be hardly any garbage, at least in my house. Those types of drinks do go in recycling bin but I think the bottle return type recycling is more efficient when it comes to especially plastics.

[@jacobbwalters8133]

@@KatjeKat86 I completely agree- unfortunately, Michigan’s Bottle Bill was created via constitutional amendment, meaning that amending it is very difficult. It has kept the policy alive, but it has also prevented it from expanding.

[@corsa701]

Here in Germany we have plastic bottles who are designed to be reusable. And even if someone throws such a bottle away, you can be sure, that somebody will pick It up and bring it back to get the money. But we have also designated containers for single use Glass containers to be remelted and reused in another form.

[@dschehutinefer5627]

Unfortunately it's all the super thin "Einweg" plastic bottles that need to be shredded and melted down, while the thick and sturdy "Mehrweg" ones that are just cleaned out and much better for the environment are more rare and almost never get a discount below the "Einweg" ones. So the industry is actively pushing the people away from glass and Mehrweg plastic. Despite, I should have to say, the taste of the Mehrweg ones also being genuinely better because the carbonation doesn't disappear so quickly for some reason.

[@huetobi]

​@dschehutinefer5627 Those extra emissions from shredding melting and shooting the new bottles are mostly if not totally offset by the reduction in transport emissions due to the lighter weight of the bottles and their reduced volume in the shredded state.

[@EdMcF1]

In Munich there is the 'Pfand' (sp?) the deposit on plastic bottles that can be reclaimed at a reverse vending machine. During Oktoberfest some people roam the U-Bahn collecting huge numbers of bottles to claim back the Pfand.

[@antonf.9278]

@@EdMcF1 Pfand is a Germany wide system, allowing you to return your bottles in any supermarket that sells the brand you want to return. If you take a random bottle to a random supermarket the chance like 95% they will take it.

[@zitachiii2196]

​@@antonf.9278 Thats not 100% true, a supermarket in Germany only has to take the same kind of bottles they are selling. that means if one supermarket only sells one way plastic bottles they also only have to take back those. but with one way plastic bottles your 95% might be true.

[@AndyBHome]

We still have a bottle return system in Michigan. Everything carbonated is sold in return-deposit bottles by law. Beer is still sold primarily in glass bottles. Plastic bottles exist for beer, but they're very very rare.

[@Vivincubus]

It'd be sick if some drink company started selling drinks in glass bottles recycled from all (safe) sources, no matter the glass color, so every recycled bottle has a slightly unique look to it colorwise

[@wolf3755]

In Canada we’ve always had a liquor bottle return at government owned beer stores 10 cents per bottle and 15 cent wine bottles. Huge success

[@RockandrollNegro]

The bottle programme is subsidized by your tax dollars in order to break even and remain operational. That's pretty much the opposite of "huge success."

[@IamTedV]

I don’t know where in Canada you are but liquor and wine bottle depots are a fairly new thin here in Ontario. Beer bottles on the other hand have had deposits on them for as long as I can remember and I’m 54.

[@seasong7655]

Here in Germany glass still is king for anything with alcohol, but no idea if they are actually reused or just melted down

[@XxXStoneFingerXxX]

Anything that has ‘Pfand’ (deposit) on it, is being cleaned and re-used. Mostly beer/beverages and joghurts/milk containers

[@Monsuco]

In America most beer is either in cans or glass.

[@BozackZodiack]

It's so interesting watching this, as someone living in a country where basically all soft-drink bottles are recycled. Both glass and plastic bottles have a deposit on them, varying by the size and type of bottle, and you return them to whichever supermarket you feel like. They all have the little machines like you showed from the Netherlands, and it doesn't really matter which brand or shape they have, as long as they have the standardized mark on them, saying which value they have. Granted, sometimes the machine is broken and it sucks that you brought a huge bag with the bottles from a whole month with you in vain, but it mostly works just perfectly! I would feel SO wrong not saving the bottles in that bag and bringing them in once in a while.

[@joshuacoldwater]

4:45 - So, I’m not sure what state you live in BUT if you go to ANY store here in NY or in CA you can return bottles the same exact way. Plastic, cans, or glass. Beer bottles are glass here- so they take those. It is just on a state by state basis now. The FUNNY thing is, they definitely DON’T clean them anymore. You can actually hear the machine break the glass bottle after it sorts it by color, or crush the can, or sort the plastic and crush it. It’s just much easier to recycle that way.

[@earthboundman5]

Hearing him talk about Germany's bottle return when it's at every store in Michigan 😆

[@DJRenee]

0:05 just clicked but we should be back to glass in totality. All of this plastic is disgusting

[@nigechubb9030]

As a kid in the 70's there were smashed bottles everywhere in campsites, pubic places and even our favourite picnic spots in the local forests. I still have the scars from the cuts on my feet from running barefoot and getting big gashes from the broken glass everywhere. So although I would like a return to glass bottles too, at least kids today don't have the same hazards from plastic and cans.

[@marcd6897]

but I guess there was no deposit on those bottles back then. I think this works wonders and people don’t throw it away because they want their money back.

[@gregsurrell598]

@@marcd6897many places in the US had deposit / return setups. But single 12 ounce bottles often came from machines. Glass beer bottles are still an environmental problem.

[@CT-vm4gf]

Now they have nanoplastics in their blood stream instead.

[@bite-sizedshorts9635]

You must have lived in an odd place that didn't have deposit bottles. My area did, and most bottles went back to the stores and then back to the bottlers.

[@Eirik_Bloodaxe]

@@bite-sizedshorts9635I think you underestimate the amount of underage teens drinking beer bottles and smashing them.

[@smelly551]

I just started home brewing beers, and recycling glass bottles is a huge part of that. Really makes you think about all those plastic bottles

[@jmckittrick1]

I did watch a video about this same topic not too long ago and the author concluded that, due to the increased weight and volume, glass packaging would end up increasing carbon emissions. Basically trucks will be hauling fewer and heavier containers which burns more fuel than switching to glass would save. I'll tag it if I can find it. Not sure if that math actually checks out but it highlights your point on the usefulness of smaller and more numerous bottling plants. Also, maybe the rise of electric truck will help change that equation. Great video. Love your stuff. Just found your channel today and your content is right up my alley. I'm subscribed and ready for future videos

[@AMRARDvermebrungruppe]

I've never been to Mexico but my buddy told me when he went surfing in Baja for a summer, he could buy a case of Pacifico beer and then literally bring the bottles back and have them refilled for free because the beer was cheaper than the glass bottles.

[@guitfidle]

I was born and raised in Oregon, I have never known a life without bottle returns. We used to have a cabin in Washington (where there was no deposit at the time) so we would bring bottles and cans back to return them in Oregon. Nowadays we have bottle return machines like the ones shown in the video in most major grocery stores. And if you don't want to go back to the store, we have dedicated bottle return facilities, with 10-20 of these machines, and get up to $50 back a day. What is kinda sad but nice at the same time- this motivates homeless individuals to gather up bottles to take them to get the refund money, making our state cleaner. This is especially evident when you go to our neighbors south of us in California, and see how many bottles are strewn across the sides of roads.

[@jasonbean2764]

I have a collection of vintage glass pop bottles. It wasn't intentional: I was working for a construction company that was replacing the sewers in Tampa. As the old pipes were dug out, the pop bottles were brought up. The workers in the 1940's and '50's just threw them in the hole. There's about 20, many from sodas that no longer exist.:)

[@FuzzyPuppetFactory]

Helll yeah, brother. What sodas?

[@0er_71m3]

In Poland, there still can be coca-cola bottles made of glass to buy, not everywhere, but they do

[@iseceepcool2]

In my country every soda/drinks company was forced to use the same bottles so you could return them to the store and a few cents and then the bottles were cleaned and sent/bought back by the drink companies

[@jinjo2200]

Growing up in Oregon, I remember that returning bottles at the store was just a normal part of life, even used the money we got at the store to buy other things. Since moving, every state I've been to really has fallen short with bottle return compared to how it is in Oregon.

[@geraldong6792]

I'm living in the Philippines and soda companies still uses glass bottles from 32oz to a liter bottles. It is already part of the culture to give a certain amount of change to reassure the seller that you'll return the bottle. Otherwise, you won't get you money back.

[@mattmccallum2007]

Not only that they clean and reuse glass bottles. The bottles have what I thought was a nice patina from their reuse.

[@zzammmsss]

Or if you have spare bottles at home you take those bottles to exchange them for filled ones. That's what we do for 1 litre drinks.

[@caskadestudio]

I go out of my way to buy from glass bottles, I love that all my locally-produced beverages are made in glass bottles and are about the same price as megacorporation drinks. They just feel so much better, very premium, they make it feel like you're having a treat rather than consuming a commodity. Plus all the benefits of health, reusability, and so on. In conclusion, buy local soft drinks!

[@theguywithaname4432]

My mom use to work at a Coca-Cola bottling plant and one thing she said an issue for Coca-Cola is the liability on Coca-Cola to have clean bottles (bc they would find mice in the returned bottles sometimes) but the liability on the workers it has happened where people working at those bottling plants would accidentally make Mustard gas when cleaning the bottles.

[@miticapecheanu1312]

You are right. The whole return flow of empty bottles is a logistic nightmare; collecting and transporting them, then washing and inspecting them. They cannot be used forever eithe. The scuffing from the friction and day to day scratching becomes so bad that ends up interfering with the automated inspecting machine. PS: I worked at a beer company too.

[@michaelwisniewski6047]

@@miticapecheanu1312in Germany they get used up to 100 times (but on average between 10-20). Then they make cullet to make new glass. All the washing and inspections are fully automated.

[@the_expidition427]

Just melt it

[@zwerko]

@@the_expidition427 Melting glass containers defeats the purpose, you have to use the same container over and over again, and not transport it at long distances, to even hope to make less of an environmental impact than what you get with single-use plastics.

[@Dude-hs7zm]

​@@zwerko ​ no. You are wrong. Single use plastics are much worse for the environment than recyclable glass. In fact recycled plastics are much worse than recycled glass too. There’s a limit to how many times you can recycle plastic, but glass can be recycled indefinitely. So let’s do the math here before we make some false claims. Based on the comment by @miticapecheanu1312 a glass bottle will be reused about 20 times. About 600 billion plastic bottles got produced in 2021. So if we divided 600 billion by by 20 we’d get 25 billion, so theoretically if all glass bottles were returned to be reused than we’d only produce 25 billion bottles annually. As for recycling, I’m gonna pretend we live in the perfect society and everyone always recycles. Most plastics can only be recycled once, others 3 times if new pellets are added, whereas glass can be recycled indefinitely. So tell me, even in the perfect world where everyone recycles everything… what happens to the 3x recycled plastic? It gets incinerated. The bottles would only get recycled 1-3 times before being burned and releasing nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide, volatile organic matter and polycyclic organic matter. Which not only negatively impacts the environment, but directly impacts anyone who inhales these fumes. So burning is worse than tossing it. Ultimately we’d be forced to place all of the plastic into landfills because burning plastic is literally worse than tossing it. So we toss the plastic then we’re fine? No, because as much as I’d like to pretend the biggest problem with landfills is the fact that they take up room, the reality of it is that garbage (including plastics) leak from landfills into rivers, oceans and into the surrounding land. And plastic doesn’t disintegrate. You HAVE to incinerate it if you want to get rid of it. At least glass that’s thrown into the ocean will turn back to sand. So in conclusion, no. Glass is not worse than plastic. The reality of it is plastic is much worse than glass.

[@bruhspenning]

as a Belgian I was really confused about glass bottles not getting recycled anymore. 20 cents on every glass bottle except some imported beverages such as wine

[@else5871]

To me, as a European, it’s crazy how someone from such a developed country as Canada can speak of returning your bottles as something exotic.

[@rocketbunnyboy0323]

@@jennifermarlow. Its just horrible, littering has got out of hand

[@waynejohnstone3685]

Canadian here too - in Ontario. We have an amazing beer bottle/liquor bottle recycle program. We pay 10 cents per container and get it back when we return it. This doesn’t exist outside the booze business though.

[@MS-sd1uz]

I'll go a step further and wonder how we ended up with such a big soft drink consumption in the first place

[@nolifenerdwhohasnevergotten]

I'm a Canadian and it's crazy how this person is describing them as if they're something exotic. Ontario literally has one of the best bottle/can deposit schemes around in terms of waste diverted.

[@norcanexs.g.llc.4625]

Another Canadian here, I am 65 years old living in Alberta and have been returning bottles my whole life, what we dont have is those little machines to drop them into, we have large warehouses called Bottle Depot's with 2 or 3 semi-trailers backed into it with 6 or 7 employees working with the sorters and loading them to be returned. As a kid I lived in the north end of Alberta now I live 1400 km south in Alberta and both ends are the same.

[@gemgal68]

Did anybody notice at 8:44 that the advertisement is not for Coke but for Pepsi? 🤣

[@AnonymousFreakYT]

I remember weekend trips to Mexico in college, and the beer bottlers there would pay about 50% the cost of the beer to get the bottle back. Pay $5 for a six pack, get $3 back when you return the empties. And those bottles very clearly had been through the bottling mechanism countless times, wear rings that had worn all the way through the printed labeling.

[@swagatrout3075]

I'm in India, and we've got these cool 250ml glass sodas like Pepsi, Coke, Sprite, 7UP, Fanta, Limca, Mountain Dew, Miranda, and more. Anything bigger comes in plastic, but we do have 250ml plastic ones for takeaway. You can drink and give back the glass bottle, but if you want to take it home, you gotta shell out a bit extra for the glass bottle itself.

[@zombiedalekweck2243]

I imagine it's better for India to have glass. It keeps in cold for longer. Plus, warm Coca-Cola or Pepsi is the worst taste ever.

[@mattymattffs]

Germany still loves its glass. Pro at recycling them. They also have super thick plastic bottles that are hard to compress

[@Master2Khof]

Soda here in Germany is mostly in plastic bottles...sometimes overpriced cans or glass. The Coke glass bottles are just a nostalgia rip-off. At least many types of mineral water are still available in glass.

[@prakashdash9564]

Here in India every beverage manufacturer has both options of glass and plastic bottles. Coca cola in plastic bottle is 2× expensive as compared to glass bottles.

[@guymendez]

Here in Belize we still get them in glass. Both the glass and plastic bottles can be resold to the company.

[@chrishebert5672]

When I go for a bike ride here in Houston along one of the bayou bike trails, all I see are plastic bottles everywhere! I thought back to when I was a kid in the 1960s. If we ever saw a glass bottle we'd scoop it up for the 5 cents deposit money. That was enough for a large candy bar. If we paid a deposit on plastic bottles then the little problem would take care of itself. Instead, we ban plastic straws, which you never see discarded.

[@VitalVampyr]

You don't see plastic straws littered because they aren't used to transport beverages. Basically any place one would use a straw has a convenient trash can to put it in when they're done or staff paid to clean up trash within minutes of it being produced. Many US States have refundable deposits for returning plastic bottles, they still have litter problems. It's 10 cents at most though, so maybe if it were higher things would be better.

[@mjc0961]

"If we paid a deposit on plastic bottles" Huh? We pay a deposit on plastic bottles here in New York. They don't do that in Texas? It's still just 5 cents though. I think it should be higher to incentive more returns. 5 cents used to get you a large candy bar, today 5 cents gets you nothing. Maybe if it was worth more, people would be more willing to return it, or more willing to pick it up after someone else tossed it out of their car window. Although I don't appreciate having to return them to a store or machine when I could just put them in the curbside pickup. (not that it matters where I recycle it, because plastic is almost never recyclable, so the correct answer would be no plastic)

[@chrishebert5672]

@@mjc0961No, no deposit on plastic bottles in Texas. I think it should be at least 50 cents. That would encourage people to either return them for refund or for others to scoop them up from the side of the road or waterway and make some money.

[@mitchib1440]

The company I work for, in 2019, gave all 1,500 employees a branded metal (reusable) flask each, and stopped stocking plastic bottles of any kind at the workplace. None in vending machines, none in the cafe, and replaced them all with the canned varients. I hated it at first. But I grey to like it. And I very rarely buy a bottle of something now. Always cans.

[@movingloz]

Awesome video. Thanks. We have those bottle deposit machines like Europe here in Australia. Only at specific locations though. Not as readily available.

[@Mengmoshu]

The Oregon Bottle Bill is directly responsible for my job, since it evolved into OBRC (The Oregon Beverage Recycling Co-op), which I work for. We've got a refillable glass bottle program, but I'm a bit disappointed that it hasn't gained more traction.

[@MosJournal]

I am no supporter of one-time use plastics. But there was a lot of broken glass which caused a lot of flats when I cycled during the glass bottle period. Now, there's a buch of plastic trash which looks bad and is bad for the environment. But I rarely get flats when I cycle.

[@aragonmoralesfaustodavid5548]

In Mexico we still have glass bottles of Coke and other drinks. And we don't have that problem

[@MosJournal]

@@aragonmoralesfaustodavid5548 Good to hear.

[@bite-sizedshorts9635]

I never had flats with my bicycle during the early 70s when drinks were all in glass bottles. Most bottles were recycled back to the drink companies.

[@Kleidenwaht44]

When I was young my family had a cottage near Coboconk, Ontario which had about 300 people that was sustained by cottagers. There was a "Bottle Depot" there that took bottles from any company, sorted them and sent them back to their respective manufacturers. This was in the early and mid 1960s.

[@mixmastermacaroni]

So when are you doing a video on wax cartons? Love to learn the History of that! And how hard it is to recycle!

[@samr.england613]

Truth. The wax makes them impossible (or cost prohibitive) to recycle. Most plastics, btw, are not recyclable. And even the plastics that are recyclable, most are shipped off to China and Africa, where they end up in the oceans. Go Glass!

[@MidWestErb]

We have bottle return machines in Michigan. 10 cent deposit. It separates glass, plastic, and metal on it's own.

[@riba2233]

I am from Croatia, that whole scandal was overblown, there was nothing wrong with any bottled products. It was an isolated case, most probably a mistake from a person working at the cafe.

[@LegendStormcrow]

There is a Texan dairy farm that sells their milk in grocery stores with returnable glass bottles. They're shaped more like bricks, so it's more space efficient.

[@Cha0s.Bring3r]

We have a brand like that here in Nebraska as well

[@-Baikal-]

As glass bottles became more scarce, the amount of random glass fragments in pretty much everywhere became rarer and rarer

[@tausifnazim5048]

No they are still available in Bangladesh. The best thing is, in fridge glass bottles get amazingly chilled that blends with the generic taste of beverage itself.

[@KeyserSoze23]

Yeah, but Bangladesh is a third world country unfortunately.

[@nenabunena]

​@KeyserSoze23 so this only applies to first world countries then?

[@georgetulai3818]

They're in romania too I also didn't watch the video just wanted to leave this comment

[@OldieBugger]

Here in Finland (and probably in the Scandinavia countries as well) most bottles have a deposit that's included in the price when you purchase it and returned when the bottle is returned. Some people make good money by collecting and returning discarded bottles.

[@zalissya7282]

Canada too

[@ESPLTD322]

I love glass, always buy it when I can. Fun story: My dad and his siblings apparently had a 1 or 2 liter glass bottle of coke literally explode out of nowhere (after mawmaw put it on the table after returning from the store) and shoot glass in the ceiling around 1971ish. They called Coke and they came out and looked at it in shock. But they paid for all the repairs and gave them an extra $20 or something (which was probably about $180 or $190 these days.) Companies back then really had good customer service.

[@AntonioDewar]

I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought, and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.

[@Modenut]

Here's perspective. A million seconds is like 11 days. A billion is over 30 years.

[@mangolollipop_]

In Perth, Australia, we now have a recycling centre for bottles. We get 10c per bottle except for wine bottles. In Melbourne, they just started the recycling process

[@I_was_a_Bullfrog]

We've had them for over a decade in Adelaide

[@SKZEY]

„People love mexican coke“. „I tried some coke and it was great!“ lmao😂

[@stvlu733]

Made with filtered and processed waste water like the kind your poo and pee end up in. I'm not even kidding.

[@RafaelMunizYT]

​@@stvlu733 the whole world works like this, or do you think we just launch sewer water into the space?

[@jordanlove208]

i was gonna mention that🤣

[@stvlu733]

​@RafaelMunizYT Other places in the world have fresh resources. Mexico does not. Maybe that's why is so cheap to produce there. Have a few Nabisco crap cookies while drinking that swill. Send it out into space 😂. Do you have any idea on how nature works?

[@exoticbreadstick8661]

@@stvlu733 thats fucking stupid where did you hear that, yahoo news?

[@sandeepjacob6371]

Glass coke actually made a comeback in india. They are currently selling coke, sprite and Fanta in glass bottles for just ₹10.