We've all seen this scenario in a movie or TV show: someone (a medieval rogue, a drunken cowboy, etc.) finishes off a bottle of alcohol and then nonchalantly throws it over their shoulder or otherwise smashes it on the ground. I've always viewed this as a waste of a valuable resource, especially in times of old. So my question is this: when did glass bottles become so cheap and easy to produce that they became a disposable commodity instead of a reusable one?
Mass production of glass bottles is a product of the industrial revolution. While mold-made glass dates decades prior (and includes some absolutely gorgeous pieces), the first definitive mass produced bottles are from a patent by Michael Joseph Owens around 1900. Recycling would become common by the Great Depression, leading into World War II. Miller High Life earned its famous nickname "The Champagne of Beers" in 1903 when it was one of the first beers to be bottled in champagne-esque bottles on the shelf, rather than dispensed into a container. Budweiser became the juggernaut it is today because Adolphus Busch put a lot of effort into developing pasteurization and refrigerated rail cars to transport his bottled beers across the country before anyone else.
For all your medieval and wild west folk? They just shattered something quite expensive for no reason! Glass wine bottles were relatively rare in the medieval period because they all had to be hand-blown, and 19th century bottles were still more valuable to refill than to randomly destroy.