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Comment by circusfly | Hacker News Reader

"It’s not uncommon for manufacturers of computers or tires to ask consumers to pay an extra fee at the time of purchase for the cost of collecting and recycling the product."

The quote is stating that expenses are passed to the consumer, how is that good? It's also talking about things like tires, I think we can all agree the world wouldn't function without tires unless we're all willing to go back to the horse and buggy?

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Purchasers should pay externality costs, that is good.

If they can’t afford the plastic now, society was losing on the transaction originally.

I don't want to pay for the cleanup of pollution, let the farmer and farmer's customers pay for that.

You are the farmer's customer.

So you’re against putting economic disincentives on plastic pollution…

… but you don’t believe in market forces coming into play to drive consumers to less expensive food grown by farmers who use less plastic.

Are you replying to the right person?

So, everyone that buys food?

Yes lol. I can’t believe you have difficulty understanding that costs that go into producing food accumulate into the cost of the food.

Or is plastic pollution the part you don’t understand?

Either way, both are simple.

I live down-wind of most of said plastic garbage where I live. Trust me: by now I'd happily pay the neighbours to clean their own plastic garbage from my field. Right now it costs me a day of work every spring to get rud of it.

Is there any other way? Either it can be extra fee or included in the price. In every case the buyer will end up paying for it one way or an other. And either of those is better than it being paid from general taxes.

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