The Real Reason Soda Is Sold By The Liter

Soda has been around since the mid-1700s, though it has certainly changed in taste and look through the years. According to Thought Co., carbonated beverages were first invented by a man named Joseph Priestley back in 1767. However, it wasn't until 1892 that soda could actually be stored because there had previously been no way to prevent it from going flat. Over time, these soft drinks (named as such for their lack of alcohol) became more popular, with two major giants eventually emerging: The Coca-Cola Company and PepsiCo. These days, the two soda companies own hundreds of different brands in addition to the eponymous sodas, including Sprite and Mountain Dew. You'd be hard-pressed to walk into a grocery store and not see these brands stocked on the shelves.

Buying and storing soda has grown much easier in recent years. But something you might have noticed is that soda bottles are almost always measured using the metric system. So, how did those two-liter bottles get their start?

According to Mental Floss, both timing and public interest played a role in soda companies' distribution of the two-liter bottle. Prior to 1970, soda was primarily sold in glass containers and was mainly measured in ounces or gallons. However, PepsiCo changed the game when it started producing its soda in plastic bottles. Oddly enough, it was meant to be a push for environmentalism.

The plastic bottle production reportedly came around the same time the government debated making a push for the metric system. After all, the United States is one of the only countries that doesn't use it. The creation of the plastic bottle coincided perfectly with that metric system push. Plus, when PepsiCo put those massive bottles on store shelves, they were an instant hit. The two-liter bottle's popularity skyrocketed, and it became the most standard form of packaging for soda. Decades later, that's still the case.