When the environuts figured out that they could control it and also draw attention to their arrogance er I mean holiness.
Remember paper bags, glass jars with real threads and lids (interchangeable with the canning libs), fruit crates, flour bags...? Yeah, we used to just reuse all that stuff as life went on, without envirowacko cr@p packaging, rules, or piety. The paper bags were great under the pretty mulch for weed barriers, also for wrapping postal packages, and even wanted at the schools for various kid crafts.
But oh no, precious trees died so the bags were demonized and banned, to be replaced by the infernal plastic bags. I said at the time (esp. to my kids who were likely rolling their eyes) to just watch the control freaks when they finally notice that their precious bags actually CHOKE trees, litter, get wrapped up on everything thanks to the natural phenomenon known as wind... they'll come up with some other scheme that conveniently benefits some envirowacko pol, organization, business, and/or lobby group.
Have you noticed how much built-in waste is designed into the newest recycle bottle products? If they can't skim the packaging to the bone they make it so you can't get the product out. Shampoos, lotions, detergents, stuff like that. Thick bottles with odd lids and other designs trap the product, or thicker liquids become a real pain to shake out of said containers. So if the manufacturers can't shrink the packaging any more they try to create as much waste as possible. The shrink ray not only turns 16 oz bottles into 12, but makes it a real PITA to get out more than 9 or 10. I need to waste time and hot water to get stuff flowing out bottles now. Freaks.
Three words ... peanut butter jars