If by sent back you mean crushed then yeah sure bottles are reused. Oregon for example breaks the bottles when you return them to prevent fraud.

Thankfully that's not the case everywhere: https://www.thestar.com/life/food_wine/2013/06/28/the_averag...

That's horrible, if true. Do you have a source for that? A quick Google search didn't get me anywhere. At least here in Austria the glass bottles are actually cleaned and re-used.

There isn't really any systematic reuse of glass bottles in the U.S. The only such thing I've encountered is some very niche arrangements between boutique dairy companies and boutique grocery stores, where you can return your $10 quart bottle of milk for the bottle to be reused.

The co-op I frequent in Vermont provides milk in glass bottles from various dairies. The bottles have significant deposits, but the most is $2. You return the bottle. You get the deposit back. They clean and reuse the same bottle, as is shown by the accumulating scratches on the outsides of the bottles. The co-op is the main grocery store in town, so not "boutique" except insomuch as Vermont itself is boutique. But then "boutique" just means not typical. Your implication is that it means supported by bougie people living in a fantasy land. Most of US material culture is crap. This is not by necessity.

> boutique grocery stores, where you can return your $10 quart bottle of milk for the bottle to be reused.

You’re misrepresenting the price substantially – that’s 5 times what Whole Foods charges and while they’re upscale they’re more mainstream than boutique these days.

You're telling me I can buy a quart of milk in a reusable glass bottle for $2 at Whole Foods?

Yes: a half gallon is two quarts and that’s $4.

https://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/product/homestead-creamery-...

Yeah the machines around here you can hear them being crushed. Most are Tomra units. Oregon does recycle full bottles but I think that's only if you use the green bags and have them sort.

https://www.bottledropcenters.com/buy-refillable-containers/

Found a video of the same machine, you can hear the bottle breaking https://youtu.be/1wwmqmxdlSw?t=27

Quick edit: Looks like Tomra does make machines that keep the bottles intact.

You cannot win this argument.

One concerned citizen will point out that glass is heavier and supposedly uses more diesel to move around and requires more trucks to do so. Another concerned citizen will point out that more carbon is used in firing sand into glass. Still another will tell you that the warm water used to clean a used bottle will also produce carbon.

The only answer is to move next to a spring and drink the water with your hands, but some other person will be concerned that you are disrupting the spring’s ecology.

It's tradeoffs all around. We each get to decide where our personal responsibility begins and ends. As a society we negotiate together in choosing leaders to preserve our way of life.

As people become more educated their positions can change. We don't have to settle for one solution forever or give up just because there isn't absolute agreement.

I agree that there are always people whining, no matter which solution you might suggest (unfortunately). However, I'm invested in three companies that build electric trucks, and there are more and more renewables on the grid. Multiple companies are tackling the problem of energy storage as well. Change is happening.

My mother used to say this happened with milk. They'd deliver it daily and collect the used bottles to be washed and reused.

This is still done today with some premium milk in the US - e.g. Strauss milk: https://www.strausfamilycreamery.com/simple-faqs/what-should...

Our family gets its milk direct from a farm this way in upstate NY.

It costs about 50% more, but the quality of the milk is unbelievable and unlike most supermarket milk, we’re paying the producer a sustainable rate that yields them a profit.

Overall in New York, 75% of remaining dairy farmers will be bankrupt in a year or two.

AFAIK, you can still get daily milk delivery in rural Scotland. My grandparents certainly did through the mid-90s. Some homes even had a little door where the milkman could place the bottles straight into the kitchen.

That’s what we’ve been doing during the pandemic in the DC area: it costs about the same as buying organic milk at Safeway to get glass bottles delivered from a local creamery, along with cheese, bread, etc.