Buying water in a returnable crate rather than a plastic multipack remains standard practice in Germany. The format survives because it is the physical basis of a refill system.
The crate is a handling unit, not packaging
A crate holds a fixed number of bottles in a fixed arrangement, which lets the whole unit be stacked, moved by pallet and counted without handling individual bottles.
That standardisation runs from the filling line to the shop floor. A retailer receives crates, displays crates and returns crates, with no repacking at any point.
Both crate and bottles carry a deposit, so the customer has a direct financial reason to bring the unit back intact rather than discarding it.
Refilling requires standard bottles
A returnable bottle is washed, inspected and refilled many times before being recycled. That only works if bottles arriving at a plant match the equipment there.
Pooled bottle designs shared across many producers make this possible, since any bottler can refill any returned bottle of that type rather than sorting by brand.
The crate is what keeps the pool organised, holding one bottle type together through collection so that sorting at the plant is a matter of crates rather than individual items.
Weight explains the glass
Glass bottles are heavy, which is a disadvantage in transport and an advantage in reuse, since glass survives washing cycles that would degrade thinner materials.
Reusable plastic bottles exist within the same system and are lighter, though they tolerate fewer cycles before being taken out and recycled.
Because refill economics depend on distance, mineral water tends to be sold close to its source, and regional brands dominate in a way they do not for most groceries.
The return journey is already paid for
Delivery vehicles returning empty from a shop would travel empty anyway, so collecting crates uses capacity that already exists rather than creating a new logistics cost.
This is the quiet reason the system remains viable. The reverse leg is close to free, which is rarely true for packaging collected from households.
Beverage retailers built around this model handle far larger volumes per store than a supermarket aisle, which is why specialist drinks shops persist alongside general grocery.
Convenience is pulling the other way
Carrying crates requires a car or a delivery service, and households without either find single-use bottles simpler despite the deposit on those as well.
Retailers have responded with delivery services and smaller crate formats, and the deposit system covers single-use containers too, so the return habit is maintained regardless.
The distinction that matters is between returning a bottle for refill and returning one for recycling. Both look identical at the machine and differ entirely in what happens next.