The device known as shoyu-tai (or soy-sauce snapper in Japanese) was invented in 1954 by Teruo Watanabe, the founder of Osaka-based company Asahi Sogyo, according to a report from Japan’s Radio Kansai.
It was then common for glass and ceramic containers to be used but the advent of cheap industrial plastics allowed the creation of a small polyethylene container in the shape of a fish, officially named the “Lunch Charm”.
The invention quickly spread around Japan and eventually worldwide, and it is estimated that billions have been produced.
Glass is only better when it is reused something like 5 times. Otherwise it is worse, as the energy needed to make it is just so high plus all the shipping.
True, but at least glass breaks down into sand, and metal caps don’t pollute, they are just unsightly. The plastic cap liners can be made of bioplastics. The energy aspect could be mitigated by mandating 100% renewables in production and transportation, maybe? I know it’s not easy to transition to these, but we don’t have many options.
As I mentioned in a prior comment, there are companies making bioplastic containers, in commercial production now.
Glass is made essentially exclusively with natural gas as the fuel source and there is no easy way to transition to something else to directly use electricity at these scales, conditions and temperatures. Before transitioning such high hanging fruit, we first need to stop burning it to heat homes, which is really easy to replace with electricity.