Much of the solid waste from the Puget Sound area is shipped by railroad 275 miles to a massive landfill in eastern Oregon. The jobs, taxes and fees from the landfill have rejuvenated the local area (Arlington, Oregon), which was slowly dying as kids left the farms looking for jobs.
Makes sense:
FTR, I am not in the, "create EVEN MORE waste to stimulate the economy" camp.
I figure manuf and retailers come to some sort of arrangement amicable to both that takes into account transport costs, need to protect the merch, theft-prevention, display space, and such. Would not a 6' long package prevent shoplifting even more than the current standard for packaging, say, SD cards? But we do not see 6' long packages for SD cards. Probably due to the transpo costs (to all) and opportunity costs (to the merchant) would then outweigh the gains from decreased theft.
I see no need for gov't to insert its clumsy and very visible foot into the decision-making process. Another, better, means to influence packaging is consumer input. Communicate to the retailer and manuf your desire for less packaging. If such influence outweighs the benefit of clunky packaging, I bet we will see a change.
Most the SD & micro SD cards I buy come with minimal packaging, as I buy them at the register at Microcenter. They have only packaging enough to protect the card from harm and are stored in bitty bins next to the register. The few high-$$$ SD cards I buy do come in the larger packaging, though. Higher quality or performance (and thus price) makes it worth while to include a quarter square foot of tough plastic packaging.
