"Environmental degradation is a result of wealth. The billions of poor have caused a minute fraction of global warming. The world today literally cannot support everyone living an American standard of life.
Why are we afraid of China and India becoming wealthy? Today they are sucking oil fields dry. I can't drive a Hummer anymore because Cheng Duan is becoming a middle class citizen. How dare he!"
I agree ... almost 100%.
Look at the bottles by the side of the road in this country ... we, as a people, are obviously too wealthy to be bothered returning containers for the deposit. So, Mother Earth has to take one for the team.
My solution would be to crank up the deposit from $0.05 (in most places) to $0.10 - 0.20 and you'd see compliance increase ... or it would provide a source of income for homeless/unemployed people. Either way, they'd get recycled.
As for the vehicles Americans drive? The price of fuel will take care of that soon enough. Market forces work best ... but in this case the price went up so quickly, it was a harsh lesson for the great unwashed to learn. Oh well.
