2024 Sustainability Report Now Available
New White Paper: Master Consumer Behavior at the Shelf
Founded in 1903 in Ohio by Michael J. Owens, inventor of the automatic bottle-making machine, we’re proud to be one of the world’s leading producers of the most sustainable packaging: the glass container. We partner with the world’s leading food and beverage companies to transform four basic ingredients into masterfully designed, sustainable and healthy glass packaging. We’re dedicated to helping brands tell their stories, through glass, to build long-lasting bonds with consumers while shaping a healthier, happier, and more sustainable world.
glass containers sold in 2025
across 61 plants in 18 countries
patents and applications
The automated bottle-making machine, invented by O-I Glass, Inc. founder Michael J. Owens, not only shaped how products were packaged — the invention shaped everyday life. Machine-made glass supported safer storage and transport of food, beverages, and medicines, aligning with growing public health standards and the rise of modern packaged goods.
This timeline highlights key milestones in glass manufacturing, glass packaging and recycling, showing how the material — and the business that started the modern industry as we know it — has supported life for more than a century.
Glass is a material unlike any other, capable of creating visually stunning, memorable experiences. We push the boundaries of what’s possible with glass, innovating new production techniques, pioneering recycling and sustainability technology, and creating iconic, brand-defining designs.
Our vision is to be the most innovative, sustainable, and chosen supplier of brand-building packaging solutions. While we believe glass packaging is already the most sustainable packaging solution, sustainability at O-I is about more than what we make. It is also about how we make it.
Michael Owens changed the way glass has been produced over the last 5,000 years with his miracle machine. Since then, we have been continually transforming ourselves, transforming our environment. From licensing machines to producing bottles, from manual to automated inspection technologies – we have automated every production process, bringing the sustainable power of glass into everyday use.
Sustainability and social impact go hand-in-hand. We value, and are committed to, building sustainable communities in which we live and work. We aim to maintain a corporate culture where sustainability and social good are integrated into our DNA. Our people are encouraged to give back and be actively involved in the improvement of their communities.
We love everything about glass packaging, and we are proud of how we make it. We create our brand building glass packaging by using high-quality ingredients, standards, and craftsmanship that comes from over 100 years of transforming a few, basic ingredients into the sustainable, brand-building packaging known and loved by our customers and consumers all over the world.
O-I’s Technical Licensing & Joint Venture team opens the opportunity to tap into the endless incentives, programs, technology, Intellectual Property and expertise of O-I that makes us the world’s largest glass container manufacturer. Interested in learning more? Connect with our Technical Licensing & Joint Venture team to get more information.
