Since the invention of the automated glass bottle machine in the early 1920s, glass has been a staple to safely store, transport, and enjoy food and beverages.

World events over the decades naturally led to ebbs and flows of the prominence of glass on shelves and in home pantries. In the post-World War II era of the 1950s and ’60s, glass had a strong presence in homes as products like milk and beer were delivered in refillable glass bottles, with systems to collect and clean the bottles. The 1970s brought a plastic revolution continuing into the early 2000s, which introduced a culture of “throw away” packaging and decreased the demand for glass. However, in the 2000s, emerging economies such as Brazil, India, China, and the former Soviet Union lifted the overall global demand for packaged food and beverages, and a corresponding increase for glass. Following the Great Recession in 2008, consumers were more price-sensitive, which encouraged mass market beer to shift from glass to aluminum packaging.