Significant Accounting Policies (Details)	Dec. 31, 2016 item
Equity Method Investments
Owens-Illinois, Inc.'s ownership percentage in the Company	100.00%
Number of countries in which the entity operates	23
Maximum
Equity Method Investments
General ownership percentage for equity method investments	50.00%
Minimum
Equity Method Investments
General ownership percentage for equity method investments	20.00%

This element represents the number of countries in which the entity has its glass container operations.

No definition available.

Name:	ow_OperationsCountriesInNumber
Namespace Prefix:	ow_
Data Type:	xbrli:integerItemType
Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	instant

- Definition

The percentage of ownership of common stock or equity participation in the investee accounted for under the equity method of accounting.

+ References

Reference 1: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 323
-SubTopic 10
-Section 50
-Paragraph 3
-Subparagraph (a)(1)
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=66011266&loc=d3e33918-111571

+ Details

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Namespace Prefix:	us-gaap_
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Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	instant

- Definition

The parent entity's interest in net assets of the subsidiary, expressed as a percentage.

+ References

No definition available.

+ Details

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Namespace Prefix:	us-gaap_
Data Type:	num:percentItemType
Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	instant

- Definition

Line items represent financial concepts included in a table. These concepts are used to disclose reportable information associated with domain members defined in one or many axes to the table.

+ References

No definition available.

+ Details

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Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	duration

- Details

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Namespace Prefix:
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- Details

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Namespace Prefix:
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