[dd36]

One way I recall from college is “producer responsibility”. If you produce it, you’re on the hook for its safe disposal. You can bake disposal deposits or some other such mechanism into the price. Such a mechanism would help deter cheap plastic junk (Chucky Cheese prizes).

[smt88]

> If you produce it, you’re on the hook for its safe disposal

I'd prefer laws that producers are on the hook for enabling safe disposal.

This would cover the plastic junk issue, because most of those things cannot be recycled. Some can be "downcycled" (recycled into something less valuable), but that's still not great.

The problem with your proposal is that lots of products (like batteries) can be safely disposed, but a consumer could do something malicious, like throwing them into a river. A manufacturer should be responsible for producing products that are easy to use safely, not for the actual safe use.

We see the same thing in other industries: auto makers have to include seatbelts, but they can't be sued if someone chooses not to use one.