Tax will not make it go away, only make it more expensive to people on a budget. You gotta buy food and at some point you don't care how it is packaged as you must eat.
But is it fair to pass the externalities onto someone else - you get your prosciutto and someone else gets the mess? That's doesn't seem right to me.
As opposed to an arbitrary tax discourage something I would whole-heartedly support that the cost of all products includes the cost of all externalities.
Maybe people on a budget should wait in the deli line for their prosciutto, or buy something cheaper.
Only fair is to ban non-degradable packaging altogether. Give companies a year or two of transitional period and then heavily fine companies not implementing the ban.
> Tax will not make it go away, only make it more expensive to people on a budget
This is a matter of the size of the tax. If a Snickers bar was slapped with a $30 plastic tax, you can be sure Snickers would not come wrapped in plastic tomorrow.
It would come "from the back of the van". If there is a demand and supply vacuum (product not available at a price majority of people who wants it can afford), then you'll find brave people wanting to make extra money on the side and simply dealing these.
As opposed to an arbitrary tax discourage something I would whole-heartedly support that the cost of all products includes the cost of all externalities.
Maybe people on a budget should wait in the deli line for their prosciutto, or buy something cheaper.