RE: Petition to Stop the slaughter: NO free trade with South American beef!
My college degree and my first job and profession is Chemical Engineering and worked on coal to natural gas conversion / processing plant - project which is now Dakota Gas company.
So, I am deeply aware of all aspects of these problems. The root of the trash, pollution and the destruction of nature can all find their root to a lack of cradle-to-grave cost benefit analysis and most of these problems originate from short-term profit and reward feedback systems - the quarterly earnings and annual bonuses of corporations and organisations promoting them - "little" things such as bottled water, plastic bags, styrofoam cups, plastic nets ...
They do cut cost - why? The cost of disposal and recycling has been someone else's costs and problems.
I am well aware of efforts to deal with the trash in the oceans, but, it is still too little and too late - same for deforestation.
You are absolutely right: it is the cost of disposal that has not been factored in by industrialists - a criminally shortsighted position that can and must change.
If there is a will, a big "IF", just add the cost to each item that we do not want to go to the waste disposal problem/ pile. There have been on and off attempts of deposits on these items such as bottles and cans.
In some stores, they will charge you some money if you want plastic bag and some don't even provide it without any government regulation requiring it.
But, in the end, it is everyone's responsibility to be aware and recycle and reuse or just avoid their use when feasible.