GtD's examples above concur with my reasoning in the area of containers for fluids.

As he states, in the 'good old days' bottles in particular were deposited & returnable to be re-used.

So many containers are produced these days that even when emptied could readily be re-used instead've ' recycled ' .

To my mind its really daft & self defeating to the ethos of 'greenness' to crush up used glass, plastic, metal containers, in order to remake them.

Considering all the extra energy & resources wasted to accomplish this, surely it'd be far better just to cleanse & re-use them.