As a lad growing up in 1970s - 1990s Toronto, Canada whenever we bought soda in larger than single serving size, or what we colloquially refer to as pop, the product came in glass bottles, and a deposit was charged on the sale. These bottles were returned to place of purchase or any retailer of same products for refund of the deposit. The bottling firms, of which most were small, regionally owned firms took the bottles back from the retailers when they delivered their orders, washed the bottles and refilled them for resale.
But that all changed in the late 1980s and early 1990s, when the big soda firms offered to pay a one time “investment” for the setting up of curb side collection and recycling programs. Once established, “Big Soda” dropped the glass bottles and moved to plastic bottles, and began closing the smaller, regional bottling firms and private contracts since the bottles were lighter and easier to ship (and no heavy, empty bottle returns to collect and ship back) from mega bottling centres.
The last hold out province, Prince Edward Island finally gave in to “Big Soda’s” demands and canceled legislation requiring all pop be sold in refillable bottles (no plastic bottles or cans allowed).
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/prin...sing-bottling-plant-in-charlottetown-1.742867
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/prin...ers-pop-tabs-as-p-e-i-s-can-ban-ends-1.752462
But what if Canada’s provinces stood their ground and told the soda firms they must sell soda in refillable bottles, with the exception of the aluminum cans then already sold across Canada (and good biz for Canada’s Alcan except in PEI?