Thank you for writing this. I think you are vey right there is no innocent party in this matter. Governments should be bold enough to think in value instead of just money and make laws.

Companies should take their responsibility and design their waste streams as much as anything else. They should step away from the linear business models and adopt systemic ones in which all consequences are taken into the model.

And consumers should live a life of purpose and realize that they have a choice how to spend their money. However, is see a but. There is one company now that's making bioplastics biodegradable in soil, saltwater, freshwater and even air. Bit that's just one company. More will follow I'm sure.

But maybe for consumers it is an idea to unpack their goods in the shop and force the shop owners to go back in the chain and protest the use of so much plastic packaging e.g. It might help beter than cleaning it up.

I call it: finding upstream solutions...