It used to be milk came in a glass bottle. You didn't chuck the bottle in the trash or recycle when empty, you gave it back to the dairy who washed and reused it. There was a bottle deposit fee to encourage returns.

We could easily do this now with a lot of plastic packaging. Low effort way to cut down on microplastics.

Grocery stores could act as central collection points for all kinds of containers.

Too far to ship them back to manufacturers? Buy local.