I'm putting words in NeedsMoreTea's mouth here, but I think he was referring not to deposit schemes, but deposit and reuse schemes.
In the 70s and 80s, soft drinks (at least in California where I lived) were packaged in really heavy, thick glass bottles. You paid a deposit on purchase, and a refund on turning it back in, and then the bottles were cleaned and reused.
These schemes have seemingly all disappeared. Many or most states still have deposit programs, but the intent is to recycle the glass, not to reuse the original bottle.
I like to explore ghost towns and old mines, and one of the things that always strikes me about the leftover trash is how thick and sturdy bottles were 100+ years ago. It's a nice visual reminder of just how disposable most products are in the modern west.
Exactly so. As I understand it, the Vermont plan was drinks in containers that weren't being refilled were going to be banned. So wash and reuse or you ain't selling that beer. :)
Reused glass milk and pop bottles here in the UK didn't seem different in weight or thickness to non-returnable bottles of the same era. They've all got thinner over the years. The oldest milk bottles I can remember, from the 70s, were indeed quite chunky but they'd mostly gone by the 80s. No idea how long they'd been around though.
The last fizzy pop refilling scheme I know of died about 5 years ago, leaving just a few dairies using it for milk.
Glass recycling is pretty efficient and effective though—it could well make more sense (from a combined financial and environmental perspective) to recycle glass than to sterilize and re-use existing bottles.
In the 70s and 80s, soft drinks (at least in California where I lived) were packaged in really heavy, thick glass bottles. You paid a deposit on purchase, and a refund on turning it back in, and then the bottles were cleaned and reused.
These schemes have seemingly all disappeared. Many or most states still have deposit programs, but the intent is to recycle the glass, not to reuse the original bottle.