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Consumers drive the business decisions.

Set incentives to make the consumers choose the more environmentally conscious choice, via a carbon / plastic / waste tax to cover the externalities.

If consumer drove business decisions, we‘d still have no seat belts and the ozone layer would not exist anymore because of CFC.

In some ways, consumers can make a difference, but only to serve as a trigger for political decisions (if we get lucky).

Also in your example, what comes first – the consumer’s choice or the carbon tax?

The tax should come first. Price incentives are strong, they will drive consumer behavior which will drive business behavior.

Wheren't both those examples driven by government regulations?

Yes, for example in 49 U.S.C. §301 and 42 U.S.C. §7671.

That is my point :)