The "One Way" Soda bottle is sometimes referred to as:
A THROWAWAY BOTTLE.
A NO DEPOSIT BOTTLE.
A NO RETURN BOTTLE.
A NO REFILL BOTTLE.
A DISPOSAL BOTTLE.
The ONE-WAY bottle was introduced in 1935 by Owens-Illnois and was better received by the beer brewers than the soda bottlers. A few bottlers were testing the water in the late 40’s and 50’s but it wasn’t until the 60’s that the ONE-WAY bottle became the consumer’s choice, led by Pepsi-Cola.
In September, 1964, Pepsi-Cola President Donald M. Kendall announced that the company was going in a new direction: to the full development of the ONE-WAY bottle. The question had to be Why? Why would a major soda bottler switch to a new packaging process? Well, some of the reasons follow:
Customer preference. Simply stated, the consumer no longer wanted to deal with the hassle of returning deposit bottles. Some bottlers were packaging Pepsi in the one-way bottle in the late 40’s and 50’s and were seeing a steady increase in total share of sales with the bottle.
Test at the bottling plants showed that one-way bottles could be handled much less expensive. An opportunity to offer Pepsi in a new, attractive package - a little different and at an attractive price.
Even with these reasons, Pepsi was not completely convinced that the consumer was ready for this bold move. Could the one-way bottle successfully compete with cans and with deposit bottles? Was it successful? You bet it was. By the mid 60’s, most, if not all, soda manufactures were offering the consumer the choice of the one-way bottle as well as the deposit bottle. Even Coke, as painfully as it was, had to abandon its single-product, single-container policy in order to remain competitive. The company started introducing Coke in 12 ounce bottles, then cans and then the ONE-WAY bottle. The first was a straight-sided, diamond bottle, and it’s been said that some distributors refused to associate themselves with it since it was not of the hobbleskirt style. It wasn’t long until this straight-side was replaced with the well known hobbleskirt style.
Many kinds, shapes, colors and designs reached the consumer from many different soda bottlers. Like many of the early bottles, especially Pepsi, there was not a standard bottle design until the late 60’s so a wide variety was available then and now for the collector. Coke, especially the diamond one-way bottle, has become very popular among collectors which is also available in many different types and sizes.
The one-way glass bottle was short lived for most bottlers, only to be replaced by plastic, mainly due to environmental, cost and other reasons. So, what happen to the one-way glass bottle? Since they were non-returnable, they went to the city dump, on the side of the road (it is said that soda bottles comprise between 6 and 20 percent of roadside litter), in the woods, you name it. However, some were, fortunately, stored away, forgotten and saved.
There are many one-way bottles for the collector. Many are highly collectible, the Pepsi’s, the Coke’s, those from small bottlers, and those from less popular brands are there for the hunt. Prices vary like most soda’s. The common, plentiful bottles are available for only a few dollars while the rare one’s go into the hundreds. Article by Sterling Mann, Email: sterling@intrex.net
Below are Blue Pints from a few different bottles.
Blue Prints are compliments of Robert Morawic.
If you have any history on the No Deposit/No Return bottle era.Please notify us.As we would like to add to this page.
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Michigan's stand against NDNR Bottles
