• prole@lemmy.blahaj.zoneBanned from community
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      19 days ago

      They’ll just pass all the additional costs (plus a little extra profit because why not) onto the consumer

      • pingveno@lemmy.world
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        19 days ago

        If so, then okay. The idea is that single use plastic is used because plastic is so damn cheap. From what I understand, the precursor is basically a waste product from oil extraction. But add a small tax and it breaks the model.

        A single cheap fork is less than US$0.01 on a commercial restaurant website. For many restaurants, that is easier to deal with than washing dishes. But let’s tack on a $0.05 tax per single use item or $0.50 single use tax. Pass it directly on to the customer on the check.

        That puts single use more on an equal footing with restaurants that are reusing dishes. Single use plastic doesn’t have its true cost built in. A tax can do that in a transparent way.

        • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zoneBanned from community
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          18 days ago

          And really, we’re just making them actually pay for some of the externalities they’re getting a free ride on.

          But it wouldn’t be making them pay for that because they would pass that cost onto the consumer as they always do.

          And yeah, if they have to, they switch. To a more expensive material. And guess who pays for that?