[kalleboo]

I don't know how things are now, but in Sweden there used to be standard 33cl glass and 1.5l PET bottle sizes, and when they were returned for their deposit, instead of crushing or melting them down, they'd just have their label stripped and they'd be washed and reused. You could tell old a glass or plastic bottle was by how scratched the sides were.

I don't think these were government mandates but just industry agreements. I remember Coca Cola being the first company to break the mold with custom 1.5l bottle designs

[bserge]

Yeah, seems to be a common theme across the world, there used to be some standard and system for reusing/recycling containers... and now it's gone. We've gone backwards on this for some reason.

[redisman]

The bottle recycling system in Finland and Sweden is brilliant. Each bottle has a small (5-20c) deposit tied to it's price which you get back at the ubiquitous bottle returning machines in grocery stores. This creates a pseudo-job for the homeless and youths and unemployed etc. to aggressively collect all the bottles and cans they can find in the city. It creates it's own little economy.

I'm always surprised this hasn't been expanded to other uses and more countries.