Owens-Illinois Asbestos Trust Claims

If you or someone in your family worked around Kaylo asbestos insulation in the 1940s or 1950s, or grew up in a household where that dust came home on a parent's work clothes, and later developed mesothelioma or another asbestos disease, Owens-Illinois left behind a trust built to pay exactly these claims.

Owens-Illinois invented Kaylo. It developed the high-temperature asbestos pipe and block insulation in the early 1940s and made it until the end of 1958, when it sold the product line to Owens Corning, and that early Kaylo went onto the steam lines, boilers, and ships of the wartime and postwar years. Decades later, the asbestos sickness it caused led to a bankruptcy filing, through an Owens-Illinois company called Paddock Enterprises, and the reorganization funded a trust with about $610 million to pay the people that early Kaylo harmed. The Owens-Illinois Asbestos Personal Injury Trust has been paying mesothelioma and other asbestos claims since 2022, and it's still open and still paying.

You don't need to have kept records from the 1950s, and you don't need to have known the insulation was Kaylo or that Owens-Illinois made it. The trust pays on documented exposure to Owens-Illinois asbestos from before 1959, and reconstructing that, from work history, military records, family recollection, and the trust's own documentation, is our job, not yours. If you can tell us what you remember, we have a place to start.

What the Owens-Illinois trust pays by disease level

Mesothelioma sits at the top of the trust's schedule, at Level VIII. Its scheduled value (the trust's preset amount) is $100,000, but its maximum value runs to $382,600, and that gap is the whole reason the filing track matters: for mesothelioma we always do a thorough exposure-history investigation to determine whether filing Individual Review is warranted, because Individual Review is what opens the higher figure your evidence can support. What the trust actually pays on each amount below is set by its payment percentage, explained further down the page, and for this trust that percentage works differently, and more generously, than at most.

A dash in the scheduled column (Lung cancer 2, Level VI) means that level has no fixed fast-track amount; it's paid through review against the average and maximum instead. A dash in the average and maximum columns (Levels III, II, and I) means those levels are paid a single set amount with no higher tier above them.

These are one trust's values, not your family's whole recovery, and for Owens-Illinois that's especially true. Because Owens-Illinois made Kaylo only through 1958 and Owens Corning made it afterward, the same Kaylo history can support a second, separate claim against the Owens Corning trust, and almost everyone exposed to early Kaylo was around other companies' asbestos as well. What the Owens-Illinois claim is worth on its own matters far less than what the whole set of claims comes to, and we come back to that below.

How Owens-Illinois Kaylo insulation exposed workers

Owens-Illinois is best known as a glass company, one of the largest makers of glass bottles and containers in the world. But in the early 1940s it developed a very different product: Kaylo, a high-temperature asbestos insulation, sold as molded pipe covering that wrapped around steam and process lines and as flat block that went on boilers, tanks, and other hot equipment. Owens-Illinois made Kaylo until the end of 1958, when it sold the line to Owens Corning. So Owens-Illinois is where Kaylo began, and this trust covers that earliest period of its use.

That period matters, because it was the war and the years right after it. Early Kaylo insulated the boilers and steam lines of the factories running flat out for the war effort, and it went heavily into Navy ships and the yards that built them. The men who installed it, cut it, and later tore it out worked in some of the dustiest conditions there were, and a great many of them were young then, which is part of why this disease is surfacing in their generation and the one after it now.

None of it released much fiber sitting still. Kaylo got into the air when it was worked: sawing and cutting the pipe covering to length, fitting block to a boiler, and especially tearing out old, friable (crumbly and dusty) insulation to reach the equipment underneath during repairs. The men doing that work breathed it directly, and so did everyone working near them, because insulation dust filled the whole space. And it went home with them, on their clothes and in their hair, to the families who washed those clothes and the children who met them at the door. See how asbestos pipe and block insulation caused exposure.

That's why an Owens-Illinois claim reaches across the trades that worked around early insulation, the insulators who installed and removed it, the pipefitters and plumbers who ran the lines it covered, the boilermakers who built and repaired the boilers it wrapped, and the Navy sailors and shipyard workers who lived alongside it, and reaches their families too. That spread is the first sign of why an Owens-Illinois claim is rarely the only one.

How the Owens-Illinois bankruptcy created the asbestos trust, and where the company is today

By the late 2010s, the asbestos liability from early Kaylo was still being litigated decades after the product left the market. To resolve it all at once, Owens-Illinois placed that liability into a company called Paddock Enterprises, which in 2020 filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, the kind that lets liabilities be reorganized and resolved through a court process rather than one lawsuit at a time.

That process runs on a part of the bankruptcy law written specifically for asbestos cases, Section 524(g). It lets a court set up a trust to take over the asbestos liability, then issue a channeling injunction, a court order that routes every asbestos claim, the ones already filed and the ones that haven't happened yet, into the trust. From that point on, the trust pays the claims. The trade the law strikes is straightforward: the trust is funded up front, and in return the company is protected from being sued over that asbestos again.

Paddock's plan of reorganization was confirmed in 2022, and the Owens-Illinois Asbestos Personal Injury Trust began operating that July and started accepting claims that October. The trust was funded with about $610 million, roughly $601.5 million in cash from O-I Glass, the continuing Owens-Illinois business, plus a payment note. That trust is what you file against today.

The company is still in business today. The bankruptcy didn't shut the business down. Owens-Illinois continues today as O-I Glass, Inc. (NYSE: OI), one of the world's largest manufacturers of glass containers, the bottles and jars used for food and beverages, a business entirely separate from the asbestos insulation that caused these claims. That matters for two reasons. It shows that resolving the asbestos liability didn't make the company or its records disappear, so the history behind your exposure can still be reconstructed. And because the trust, funded years ago, pays these claims rather than the operating company, filing yours doesn't take a dollar from anyone working there today.

Why the Owens-Illinois trust pays 65%, and what the percentage means

The trust pays set amounts based on your diagnosis, scaled to how serious the disease is, with mesothelioma at the top of the schedule and the non-malignant conditions like asbestosis lower down. The full breakdown is in the table near the top of this page.

How you file decides which of those amounts is within reach, because the trust offers two tracks:

• Expedited Review is the fast track. If your diagnosis and exposure fit the trust's preset criteria, the claim is paid the fixed scheduled value (the trust's set amount) for your disease level, with no negotiation and a quicker turnaround. It's the simplest path when the standard amount is the right amount.
• Individual Review is the evidence-based track. Instead of the fixed figure, the trust weighs the specifics of your case, your age, your work history, your dependents, and the strength of the exposure proof, and it can pay up to the much higher maximum value. It takes longer and asks for more, but for a serious diagnosis it's usually worth it. For mesothelioma we always do a thorough exposure-history investigation to determine whether filing Individual Review is warranted, because the gap between the scheduled and the maximum value is large enough to matter to your family.

Once your claim's value is set, here's where Owens-Illinois works differently from most asbestos trusts, and in your favor. Most trusts pay a small fraction of a claim's value, often just a few cents on the dollar. Owens-Illinois pays 65%.

That figure went up recently. The trust used to pay 50% of a claim's value as a first installment, with the possibility of a second installment later. On August 19, 2026, with the consent of the committees that represent current and future claimants, it raised its payment percentage to 65%, and it now pays that 65% as a single payment, with no second installment. Claimants who were paid at the lower percentage receive a supplemental payment to bring them up to the new rate.

A percentage that high is a sign of a well-funded trust, but it isn't a promise that it will never change. Every asbestos trust reviews its percentage over time so it can treat fairly the people who haven't been diagnosed yet, because these diseases can take fifty years to surface, and a review can move the percentage down as well as up. We work from whatever the trust is paying when your claim is filed and confirm it against the trust's current notice rather than any figure that might be out of date.

Is the Owens-Illinois trust still able to pay?

Yes. Unlike most asbestos trusts, this one is young, it opened in 2022, and it grew over the past year, so here's where it stands from its most recent annual report.

• About $550 million on hand, and it grew in 2025. At the end of 2025 the trust held roughly $550 million in net assets, up from about $537 million a year earlier. It earned more from its investments than it paid out, so the fund grew over the year rather than shrinking.
• About $30 million in claims paid in 2025. In that single year the trust paid out roughly $30 million on settled claims.
• More than $150 million paid since 2022. In just its first few years of operation, the trust has already paid more than $150 million to asbestos claimants.

That growth is exactly why the trust can pay 65% and still hold a reserve: it's a well-funded, recently created trust that isn't straining to stretch its money across a long backlog. None of that means the money is unlimited, which is why it pays a percentage and reviews it over time rather than paying every claim in full. But the trust is open, funded, growing, and paying right now, and a claim filed today is paid on the structure in effect when it's processed. We track the annual reporting and can walk through the full financial picture with you when you call.

Who qualifies for an Owens-Illinois trust claim

A trust claim rests on two things: a qualifying asbestos diagnosis, and proof that you were exposed to Owens-Illinois asbestos during the period the trust covers. The diagnosis side is medical. The exposure side is where this trust differs from most, and where most of our work happens.

The exposure has to fall before the end of 1958. This is the one rule that sets Owens-Illinois apart, and we'll be straight with you about it. Most asbestos trusts pay on exposure up to the early 1980s, but Owens-Illinois only made Kaylo until the end of 1958, when it sold the line to Owens Corning, so its trust pays only on exposure from before December 31, 1958. If all of your asbestos exposure came after 1958, this isn't your trust, but the Owens Corning asbestos trust, which covers the later Kaylo, very likely is, and we'll point you there. Many careers and households that touched early Kaylo reach both.

Exposure during childhood counts. Because the cutoff is so early, many of the people who can claim today aren't the workers themselves but the children who grew up around them. If a parent worked with Kaylo before 1959 and carried the dust home on their clothes, hair, and tools, the children in that household breathed it too, and that secondary exposure can support a claim of their own decades later, which is often exactly when mesothelioma surfaces. A claim doesn't depend on having held the insulation yourself, or even on having been an adult when the exposure happened.

For mesothelioma, you don't need heavy exposure. Mesothelioma can come from brief, limited exposure, and the trust recognizes that, so a meso claim doesn't have to meet the higher dose threshold that applies to some other diseases. That threshold, Significant Occupational Exposure (SOE), is about five years of total asbestos exposure with at least two of those years before the 1958 cutoff. It applies to lung cancer and other cancers, and to the more serious asbestosis claims; the base asbestosis and pleural-disease levels pay their set amounts without it. SOE can add up across different employers, and it can come from working near the dust, not only from handling the material yourself.

Family members can qualify too. Beyond childhood exposure, any household member of an Owens-Illinois worker, a spouse who laundered the work clothes, an adult who lived in the home, can file on the same exposure history that supports the worker's own claim. How take-home asbestos exposure works.

How the trust's site list and product identification work

The trust recognizes exposure two ways, and you only need one of them. The first is its approved site list: more than 2,200 worksites across dozens of states that it already accepts as places early Kaylo was present. The second is product identification: proof that you, or the worker whose dust came home to you, were around Kaylo before 1959, even at a site the list never names. Given how long ago that exposure was, the reconstruction often leans on coworker and family recollection, military and employment records, and the specification records for the buildings and ships of that era.

Either door shows Owens-Illinois asbestos was where the work happened; a solid claim also shows the work put its fiber in the air. Kaylo released fiber when it was sawed, cut, fitted, and torn out, so we use the exposure record on Kaylo, together with the work history, to connect those tasks to exposure. Whether it was the worker's own exposure or the dust carried home to the family, the list or the product puts Kaylo at the site; the task evidence is what ties it to the person. Assembling that, even for exposure this old, is exactly what we do. You can also search our directory of asbestos exposure sites to see whether the place you or your parent worked is already documented.

How an Owens-Illinois claim gets filed

A trust claim isn't a lawsuit, and that surprises people who expect a courtroom. There's no judge, no jury, no deposition, and no defense lawyer arguing the other side. You're not suing anyone. You're submitting a documented claim to a fund that already exists to pay it, and the trust reviews it against its written rules and pays on its schedule.

What the claim needs is proof of two things: your diagnosis, and exposure to Owens-Illinois asbestos before 1959, whether that was the worker's own exposure or the dust a parent or spouse carried home. Putting that together is our job, not yours, and we know how to do it for exposure this old, leaning on employment and military records, the trust's approved site list, the specification records of the era, and the recollections of coworkers and family. You don't need to have kept paperwork or remember product names to start.

The Owens-Illinois trust has been open and paying since 2022 and is still accepting claims today, so the door isn't closed. The fuller mechanics of how trust claims are prepared, filed, and paid are laid out in our guide to how asbestos trust claims work. When you call, we'll tell you what your specific claim is likely to involve and how the timeline tends to run.

An Owens-Illinois claim is rarely the only one

Here's the part that changes the math for most families: the Owens-Illinois trust is usually one claim out of several, and the others come from the very same work.

The clearest example is Kaylo itself. Because Owens-Illinois made Kaylo through the end of 1958 and Owens Corning made it afterward, a single stretch of work around Kaylo can be two separate trust claims, one against each company, decided by when the exposure happened. Exposure before December 31, 1958 points to this trust; exposure from 1959 on points to the Owens Corning asbestos trust. A worker, or a household, whose years around Kaylo straddled that line can have both at once, filed and paid independently. The same history, sorted by date, becomes two recoveries instead of one. We handle that sorting for you.

Now stretch that across a working life. Anyone around early Kaylo was around other companies' asbestos too, the pipe covering from one maker, the block from another, the gaskets and packing on the same equipment from still others, job after job. Many of those makers went bankrupt as well, and each one left its own trust. The same history that supports your Owens-Illinois claim usually supports a stack of others, and because each trust reviews and pays independently, the claims don't compete with each other. They add up. How asbestos trust claims work.

This is why the thorough exposure investigation is worth so much. Each trust pays its own share, and a work or family history that turns up several trusts can change the total on a mesothelioma claim by a wide margin. We walk through a full worked example, several trusts totaled across one history, in our guide to mesothelioma trust settlement values.

Even stacked across many trusts, trust claims are still only one part of an Owens-Illinois recovery, and some of the other parts can be larger. The full set of channels, including the lawsuits and benefits that run alongside the trusts, is laid out in the recovery options on this page.

Sources of compensation beyond the Owens-Illinois trust

An Owens-Illinois claim usually sits inside a larger recovery, and the channels run in parallel without canceling one another out. We file across all of them that apply.

• Asbestos bankruptcy trusts. The Owens-Illinois trust is one, and a history around early Kaylo almost always reaches several others, the Owens Corning trust for the later Kaylo and the makers of the other products on the same equipment. They review and pay independently, so they stack. How asbestos trust claims work.
• Lawsuits against solvent manufacturers. Not every asbestos maker went bankrupt. Some are still in business and can be sued directly for selling a product they knew was dangerous, and a lawsuit can recover more than a trust claim, though it takes longer. How asbestos product liability lawsuits work.
• Premises liability against the site owners. The shipyards, plants, and powerhouses where early Kaylo was installed and torn out can be held responsible for the conditions in their boiler and engine rooms, separate from the companies that made the products. How premises liability claims work.
• Federal and disability benefits. These depend on the exposed worker's service and work, and they're paid on top of the trust and lawsuit recovery. Navy service in that era can support VA disability benefits; civilian shipyard work can support Longshore benefits (LHWCA, the federal program for maritime and harbor workers); civilian work at a federal facility can support FECA benefits (the Federal Employees' Compensation Act); and Social Security disability is available to anyone whose illness stops them from working. How asbestos disability and benefit claims work.

Your Owens-Illinois trust claim has no defenses to answer. It's a paper claim: no opposing lawyer, no deposition, no courtroom, no one arguing the other side. The liability was settled when the trust was funded, and the trust either pays the claim or it doesn't, on its written rules.

Defenses only come up on the lawsuit side, the claims that run alongside the trust against the manufacturers still in business and the site owners where the work was done. Those defendants raise the same handful of arguments they raise in most asbestos cases, and none of them is new to us. The short version is that each one describes a cleaner, smaller version of the work than the one your loved one actually did, and the evidence answers it.