Returnable schemes almost never fail on the container. They fail on the loop nobody designed.

Who washes them, and in what

A commercial machine at high temperature is a different life to a domestic one.

Specify the container against the actual wash regime, not a headline cycle count.

Where do they come back to

A return point people pass anyway beats one they must detour to.

Reverse logistics only works if the empties nest tightly.

What is the deposit

High enough to be felt, low enough not to deter the first use.

It is a behavioural number, not a cost-recovery one.

What happens to the ones that vanish

Budget shrinkage from day one rather than discovering it in month four.

A scheme that pretends shrinkage is zero is a scheme that ends.

Then choose the container

Durable, dishwasher-marked rather than surface-printed, and nesting tightly on the return leg.