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The Decline of Refillable Beverage Bottles in the U.S.

Before the introduction of one-way, disposable containers all fountain soft drinks and draught beer were sold in refillable glass bottles. The disposable steel can made its debut in 1938 and in less than 10 years cans comprised 11 percent of beer market share. Non-refillable glass bottles made up 3 percent and  refillable bottles had dropped to 86 percent. By 1984 only 8 percent of beer volume was packaged in refillable bottles. Refillable market share is now less than 4 percent of packaged beer volume.

The soft drink industry was slower to move from a refillable, reusable system to a one-way, disposable system. In 1960 nearly one-half (47 percent) of beer was sold in one-way containers while only 6 percent of soft drinks were sold in one-way bottles and cans. Today less than 1percent of packaged soft drink volume is sold in refillable bottles.

Economic instruments such as deposits allow refillables to compete in the marketplace with one-way, disposable cans and bottles. This is evidenced by data from the Beer Institute which shows that most states with mandatory container deposits have a higher percentage of refillable beer bottles than states without deposit laws. According to the Beer Institute, the market share for refillables dropped to 3.3 percent in 1998. However, in 1998 11 states had a refillable market share of 7 percent or more. Of those 11 states, 7 require deposits on one-way, non-refillable beer and soft drink containers. In one of the deposit states (Massachusetts), 18 percent of total beer volume was sold in refillables in 1998.