Recycling Swindle - Why Should We Recycle?

I recycle, this is my choice and my obligation as enforced by local government.

The good news is that the amount of packaging on my weekly shop, presently far outweighs my other household waste and is therefore suitable for recycling. The bad news of course is that we householders have to pay via taxes for these items to be recycled and for the waste to be collected. The government are also considering introducing fines for those householders who do not recycle adequately.

If the government are making the general public pay for recyclables to be collected and recycled then surely they are placing the responsibility for all this waste on the houselder, but is the householder really responsible? If not them, then who?

The manufacturers who are ever increasing the amount of packaging they put on all goods are to blame. We could say that the manufacturers are consumer led and merely meeting demand, but the simple reality is, that if they DO NOT make it we cannot buy it. But we WILL buy whatever there is as regardless of minimum packaging we want the contents.

So why is the consumer held liable for this waste problem and made to pay not once (when they buy the product) but twice for all this packaging. We pay for it to be manufactured and we pay for it to be disposed of.

Why don't the world's powers merely introduce legislation to prohibit manufacturers from packaging to excess?

Alternatively the government could make the manufactuer cover the cost of disposal. The manufacturer would then of course pass this extra charge to the public via their pricing. BUT, in order to be competative surely some brightspark would start to introduce minimally packaged items and then we the consumer really would have a choice. We either pay a lot for environmentally unfriendly packaged items or pay less for environmentally friendly packaged ones.

What do you think?