Two-liter bottle

The two-liter bottle is a common container for soft drinks. These bottles are produced from polyethylene terephthalate, also known as PET plastic, using the blow molding process. Bottle labels consist of a printed, tight-fitted plastic sleeve. A resealable screw-top allows the contents to be used at various times while retaining carbonation.

In the United States, the two liter bottle is one of the few cases where a product is sold by a round number of metric units. Since very few other beverages are sold in this exact quantity, the term "two-liter" in American English almost invariably refers to a soft drink bottle. Other common metric sizes for plastic soft drink bottles include 500 milliliters, 1 liter, and 3 liters. The plastic bottle cap itself holds ~5ml.

In many Eastern European countries such as Russia or Slovakia, plastic bottles are used for selling beer as well.

PepsiCo introduced the first two-liter sized soft drink bottle in 1970. The bottle was invented by a team led by Nathaniel Wyeth of DuPont, who received the patent in 1973. In 1985, a three-liter bottle appeared on supermarket shelves. The design is still used to this day by some bottlers. Most modern-day two-liter bottles are one piece of PET (polyethylene terephthalate) with a base that is molded with a radial to provide strength for the bottom and the ability to stand upright. Most early two-liters had a separate opaque base glued to the hemispherical bottom of the clear PET flask. This base had a coaxial corrugation and drain holes. It was abolished in the 1990s, in part due to difficulties recycling the two separate plastics.

Used two-liter bottles see new life in a variety of uses including carpeting, boat hulls, polyester fabric, filling for jackets, sleeping bags, mattresses, pillows, recycling bins, scouring pads, and on an increasing scale, new soft drink bottles.

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