What are you talking about? Even in my very conservative neck of the woods, I see people changing their buying patterns. Being "green" is now desirable, unlike 15 or so years ago. Honestly, I think a few things could nudge people in the right direction, such as:
- decreasing size of trash and recycling cans
- small tax on single use goods, like grocery bags and packing materials
- end or at least reduce subsidies for food, oil, etc
- charge vehicle registration based on milage/year and vehicle type
- create a pollution tax and return it as a dividend
We can try to force people to do the right thing, but I'm of the opinion that people are really good at avoiding rules, so increasing costs may be more impactful. That's a large part of my many of my neighbors are becoming more green:
- LEDs are cheaper than incandescents or florescents over time
- electric cars are more convenient (no gas station visits) and getting to be price competitive with gas cars
- reusable shopping bags are becoming more and more common
People want to be green and will often choose the "better" option, provided it's reasonably close in price. Thus increasing the cost of bad options should increase competition and innovation for good options.