Are you sure about this?
"if they really wanted to reduce landfill the answer is to charge the producers on a per non-recycled packaging weight system to promote them to recycle" That charge would be paid by you and me and we already vote with our feet as soon as we start comparing product prices.
Producers don't go out of their way to use packaging which is difficult to recycle - they try to use as little as possible, congruent with delivering a product to the consumer with the best trade off of lowest cost / acceptable delivery problems.
Getting rid of composites sounds like a great idea and I'm not a huge fan of them myself ... but the reality is that too many of us opt for composites on the shelf - the products don't degrade to the same extent as non composites and have a long shelf life when we get them home. They also allow very bright surface printing which is favoured by package designers for good visibility on the shelf. Again, don't blame the producers- blame our hypocrisy about packaging. We don't want too much of it, but we buy stuff in bright colours and we want products that are factory fresh when we can eventually break our way through the packaging.
When I was a lad I went to the grocer and most products were in bulk and then served into paper packets - the kind of model that I think that you would like to go back to. It took time to get served so it wasn't unusual to talk to people while you waited, but even if you could put up with the delay, I doubt that much of that product would be saleable these days - the H&S inspectors would have a field day combing it all for insect faeces.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
