[Schroedingersat]

> because the cost of collecting separate streams for each brand of soda bottle is too expensive in the developed world.

Then we just make a standard set of bottles and make them pay a much larger collection bond on any non-standard bottle which is split with the collection center on reuse.

No reason we have to tolerate waste just so each brand can feel like a special snowflake.

[mitthrowaway2]

The payoff for this kind of standardization would be enormous. Bottles are one example. Books are another. If books were made in universally standardized shapes, then bookshelves could be sized to fit them without wasted space, and so on.

[midoridensha]

Here in Japan, that's exactly how it is for books: most popular novels and such come in just a few standard sizes. Books from the same publisher usually have the same color pattern on the jacket too. Bookshelves look very neat and tidy as a result.