Before considering charging or compelling consumers to recycle packaging, manufacturers should be made to be more responsible for the packaging they produce.
It seems mad to spend so much effort in trying to convince consumers to recycle when resources have already been wasted in the production of the packaging. For example the recent purchase of perfume revealed that the bottle only took up about two thirds of the box it came in, with a small flap holding it in place in the corner of the box. From a marketing point of view it may seem a clever idea to make it look as though we are getting a bigger item than we are, but in terms of waste it is simply reprehensible.
Everyone probably has their own 'bug bear' on the amount of waste produced – polystyrene, moulded plastic, boxes inside boxes, plastic bottles instead of glass, mail shots – much of which I'm sure is totally unnecessary.
Yes, we should all be recycling what we can but please stop manufacturers producing so much of the waste in the first place.
The planets resources are being wasted on totally unnecessary items. Just because it is available does not mean it should be used. If you have a lot of garbage to throw out consider skip bin hire perth. The credit crunch has revealed how the wastage of money has dragged us all into debt (even if it's only as part of the National Debt), but at least there is a way out of the problem. Destroy the planet and there's no way back.