Honestly, there should just be a tax on disposable packaging. Watch how quickly reusable packaging and refill setups become "cost-competitive".
@joepie91 I think it would be so ridiculously easy for most companies to slash 50-80% of their plastic packaging use. Just put a thinner packaging in a cardboard box, geez.. And there are so many other options if that doesn't work well.
But it would definitely require government intervention.
@joepie91 I agree, but you should also work into the law that they can't pass that cost onto the consumer. In Amsterdam, you get charged a plastic fee on a lot of food delivery, because they have to pay a tax legally on that plastic, but most companies just pass that onto the customer.
I really love the idea of little to no packaging on everything though. I also would love a total ban on all disposable plastic, not a tax. The Netherlands has a horrible problem with plastic in grocery stores, and also requires a tax on that too. I mostly always bring my own bags so I don't have to pay for the plastic bags, because they don't even offer paper bags! There's no options for paper bags here at the two major grocery stores. This is so bizarre to me.
you get charged a plastic fee on a lot of food delivery, because they have to pay a tax legally on that plastic
They actually have to explicitly charge you for it, the idea behind that law is that people will see refusing it as a way to save a little money. But yes, many shops don't do that.
We do have a big problem with plastic, yes. The plastic-wrapped vegetables in the supermarket are an outrage.
@hans that's frustrating. If I could refuse plastic and opt for paper, I would, but none of the restaurants that do the plastic charge have another option. An example would be ordering vegan Indian food. It always comes in plastic containers, and there's nothing I can do about it. I can't ask them to use my own containers, and I can't ask for paper containers.
The plastic wrapped cucumbers are infuriating. Also, why don't they provide paper bags for single serving bread? Why is it always plastic? Even the USA does better at this, and they love petroleum, perhaps more than anyone.
But it would cost a shop more to offer that choice. The Chinese snackbar here understands it, usually. They give a paper bag, most of the time; they use cardboard containers instead of plastic ones, most of the time.
And they know by now that if I only get two or three items, I don't want a bag at all.
@domo Assuming you're talking about the SUP fee, as I understand it it isn't a tax at all - places using those single-use plastics are merely required to charge customers, but do not themselves owe any kind of fee to anyone.
This seems to be driven by some neoliberal nonsense around 'economic nudging' that completely ignores how and why these plastics are actually used and selected (ie. it isn't actually customers making that choice).
Had it been an actual tax, then chances are that it wouldn't have been charged to customers at all. A lot of takeaway places were publicly lamenting how they didn't *want* to charge this fee to customers, but they legally had to.
