Brincando com a Coca-Cola retornável: milagre ou economia?

What does “retornável” mean in Brazilian Portuguese?

Retornável means “returnable,” and in Brazil it almost always points at one thing: the thick glass bottle of Coke or beer you buy once and then keep exchanging. You pay for the casco — the empty — the first time, and after that you hand the empty back and pay only for the drink. Its opposite is descartável, “disposable,” the plastic bottle that gets thrown away.

The suffix is doing the work: -ável is Portuguese’s -able, bolted onto a verb. Retornar → retornável, lavar → lavável (“washable”), aceitar → aceitável, and with -ível for -er/-ir verbs, esquecer → inesquecível. In the clip a bottle explains her own immortality with it: é porque eu sou retornável… eles me pegam, me bebem, e aí eu volto pra fábrica.