Exactly. In addition to regulation on what is okay packaging, if producers somehow had more responsibility for where the end waste goes, it would encourage a closed system
It's in corporations interest to shift the responsibility entirely in the consumer
Why is that? A tax is slower and exempts the wealthy while inflicting the costs onto the poor.
Regulation is cheaper, better, fairer and faster at getting policy implemented than a technical tax, and doesn't have the behavioral issues that abound when telling people they are "taxed" for doing something.
Taxes don't always need to be slower or more weighted to lower income (e.g. property taxes). However, they tend to be gamed more easily and sometimes have unintended consequences.
Regulation and taxes go hand in - how are you going to pay for regulatory enforcement unless you dip into some general fund? Answer: a tax.
The biggest lie about government is the one that claims all taxes are bad. Without taxes, you get Somalia. Someone is going to run the roads/commerce and enforce a tax to do so - do you want it to be the local strongman or an elected official (where you may be able to vote on how taxation works and/or vote someone else in)?
Prices do a great deal of work communicating and providing feedback about what consumers value. When you ban the product outright, you lose any ability to use that price information to make good tradeoffs between various goals of environmental improvement and consumer satisfaction. Ignoring the price that these regulations put on consumers isn't in their best interest.
Consumers are at fault there, too. If people didn't buy it, companies wouldn't produce it. Consumers need to be disincentivized from purchasing such wasteful products.
Easy if there were more alternatives. Most products are packaged in plastic with no alternatives. I recently saw a shop which is committed to selling everything in open crates (fruits/veggies - bring your own bags) or using only 100% recyclable materials (glass, paper or biodegradable plastic).
Consumers are limited because suppliers (in aggregate) often control the market.
If all the stores supply wasteful products, what are your options. If you're a store and you have limited options on what you can sell (because all the suppliers have wasteful packaging) what are your options?
The problem (plastic junk) comes from the supply-side. It doesn't really help consumers for the most part - heck I think most would prefer fruit that was local (all else being equal).
Granted, it should be attacked from all sides, but how much of that do consumers actually need?
It's possible (not easy, nor very practical let's say) to have almost zero waste if you're really dedicated. This is 4 years worth of trash that fits in a mason jar: https://youtu.be/BxKfpt70rLI?t=30s
So making a pretty sizable reduction even as things are should be doable.
