In former times, most beverage containers were refillable.

This is correct. Bottlers were leaders in recycling for practical reasons. Starting in
the 1960s, however, with wages rising, the economics of recycling changed because if the
increased expense of the cleaning infrastructure, which involved a good deal of human
intervention. Bottlers found that the costs of handling would exceed the costs of buying new
bottles, and making their decision on the basis of their self-interest alone, as would be
expected, switched. Glass bottle and can manufacturers supported efforts to switch, and
one-way aluminum and plastic bottles eventually supplanted one-way bottles. Consumers
were willing to support the change because of the greater convenience, and the long slide
toward throwaways was on.