A tax like that would put pressure on corporations to package their products in easily reusable forms, with less packaging, or run their own recycle programs for expensive short-lifespan products like iPhones . This would largely offset the costs on consumer.<p>A significant amount of packaging could be reduced without much consequence on consumption. Especially for food. Grocery stores could use in-store branding&#x2F;ads in place of flashy box designs. Plus as ecommerce&#x2F;drones come to dominate, the need for flashy packaging won&#x27;t be as important as website marketing.<p>Those risks IMO would be limited to a transitional period while companies evolve their industrial design. The bigger problem is that it requires a big behavioral change for both producers and consumer... it&#x27;s difficult to make humans change the behaviour they known their whole lives. Consumers will have to make an additional purchasing investment (analyzing the disposal costs and companies would have to invest in industrial design and rethink retail marketing.