Today, it’s hard to imagine a world without single-use packaging. But before the 1950s, we reused a lot of packaging. For example, people would buy milk in glass bottles and return the empty bottles to the store. Then the bottles were cleaned, refilled, and sold again. Litter and trash were not significant issues because Americans reused as much as possible.
After World War II, companies decided to use lighter, single-use bottles to reduce costs. This saved companies a lot of money. Corporations were able to pass along the cost of packaging to consumers, expand their distribution, and increase profits. But this created trash.
Even though corporations created the waste crisis, they did nothing to manage the environmental impact of their trash. Businesses were able to pass off the environmental costs of their business to the public. Whereas before, they were forced to pay for the cleaning and recycling of their containers, they now passed that cost off to communities where trash was piling up.
