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Great idea. I'd also like to see a tax based on environmental cost, the way some jurisdictions have "disposal fees" for certain electronics like printers.

The first thing that comes to mind are the throw away toys and gag gifts and dollar store items, but extends to anything that is poorly made or single-use, especially things where the battery is not meant to be replaced.

The burden needs to be put on manufacturer's creating more waste into the world.

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I think we pretty much do this already by charging for waste removal. If you throw things away, you pay more. And certain things cost more to throw away like lithium batteries.

So the tax is on the tail end rather than front loaded.

I think it's better to front load it. At the back end people have the option to dispose of things improperly.

Also, I don't think we include enough externalities in the price if things.

Having an index could inform people when making purchasing choices.

It's one thing to charge to move the waste to a landfill, it's another to price in the long term (difficult to quantify) environmental costs (manufacturing pollution, land & water contamination, depletion of resources, etc). I'd be curious to see how much the disposal costs reflect total costs and whether some areas are subsidized.

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