The point of this photo was to get this point across: “People, return your milk bottles!” … newspaper reports of the time indicate there was a shortage of bottles throughout North America.
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“January 24th, 1947, Original Press Photo.
Mrs. Dorothy Lamb of Scarsdale, New York, goes to market in the modern manner, with a basketful of empty milk and beverage bottles. She is answering the plea for return of the 35 Million bottles that have gone “truant” in American homes. Every one must be returned to circulation if a shortage milk and beverages is to be avoided because raw-material shortages ins curtailing bottle production.”
As you can see in this ad published the January 04, 1947, issue of the Bradford Era (Bradford, Pennsylvania), the shortage was serious and ‘dangerous’!
This article from The Province, dated January 16th, 1947, out of Vanouver, B.C., provides more information about the crisis: