About 12 percent of all U.S. beer was sold in returnable bottles in 1981, but since 2007 the percentage has been negligible, according to the Beer Institute in Washington, D.C. In Pennsylvania, more than a quarter of all beer was sold in returnable bottles in 1981, but that was when state liquor control laws required ...

When did returnable bottles stop?

The heavy glass bottles were robust enough to be refilled and re-used seven or eight times. In the 1950s until the 1970s, some milkmen would collect drink bottles, including beer bottles, from the doorstep and offer a refund. The regime died out in the 1980s following the introduction of cans and cheap plastic bottles.

What happened to returnable bottles?

The deposit system and returnable bottles started to get replaced by nonreturnable containers. The beer industry was the first to switch to non-returnable containers, which proved difficult at first, because pressure in the can could not release and the metal changed the taste.