Single-use packaging that bedevils nature and our society today was born more than 50 years ago, at a time most of us think of as progressive. Before the PET bottle and aluminum can, refillable packaging was common and with citizen action, now it’s time for a comeback.
The 1960s and 1970s were a tumultuous time in the U.S., with social uprisings and protests erupting around the Vietnam War, Civil Rights, women’s liberation, and the counterculture movements. In 1969, one year before Earth Day – a milestone for the modern environmental movement – Coca-Cola made two major decisions around the packaging of its ubiquitous product. On the one hand, it first began selling its beverage in its newly created bottles made of a novel material called plastic. Coca-Cola also began to study the best packaging system for the environment amid growing public concern about litter piling up in…