The bond rating agencies might go after companies that produce plastic packaging next. After taxing pollution like carbon emissions and other air and water pollutants, taxing waste products could make sense. These materials could be designed for easier recycling and reuse, and they are not because neither the manufacturer nor the retailer of the product inside them has to pay the cost. Homeowners, business owners, and municipalies pay the costs of waste collection and disposal, and natural ecosystems pay the price for plastic waste that is not being disposed of responsibly. Shifting these costs onto the manufacturers and/or retailers could raise funds to help deal with the problem while providing an incentive to innovate and produce better packaging and close the loop on materials.

Plastic packaging makers may be less credit-worthy in the future as governments try to curb marine litter, Moody’s Corp. said in a report…

Packaging consumes about 40 percent of plastics worldwide and accounts for about 60 percent of the material that ends up as waste. Governments worldwide are concerned that plastics take decades or even centuries to degrade and that they’ve been working their way into the food chain as they seep into rivers and oceans. By 2050, there will be more plastic than fish in the oceans, according to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation…

The issue has garnered attention from one of the world’s biggest oil companies. Earlier this year, BP Plc cut its forecast for oil demand from petrochemicals by 2 million barrels a day, citing the risk that regulations tighten on plastic products and shopping bags. Packaging makes up about 3 percent of global oil use, according to the company’s chief economist, Spencer Dale.

Closing the loop might start to seem less crazy. My Amazon Fresh delivery person will pick up my used cooler – why not take back the plastic packaging for recycling, or develop other types of reusable containers? As more of this gets automated, hopefully the “ick” factor will be reduced.

I wish people would stop hating on plastic straws though. They are so tiny, and so useful to help children drink without spilling things. And have you ever tried to wash a “reusable” straw? Busy working people trying to raise the aforementioned children do not have time for that. So I say either invent a straw washing machine or give these tiny pieces of useful plastic a pass and focus on the mountains of plastic wrap and food containers that are actually filling our garbage cans, trucks and landfills.