Producers should pay the costs of recycling, not consumers or taxpayers.
If producers had to pay a higher fee for using non-recyclable materials and packaging, then they would switch. If McDonalds could save money by making their drink containers 100% compostable, then suppliers would compete to fill that contract.
If companies paid local waste companies the true cost of the trash their products create, then regular residential recycling pickup would be free.
The idea isn't new. It’s sometimes called 'extended producer responsibility’, and there’s a paper out from Yale going into more depth, but I just like the simple idea.
Today, there’s no incentive to be responsible. Why buy carrots at a farmers market and use a cloth bag when the supermarket offers them in plastic?
Compostable is free, recyclable cheap, landfill more, and toxic is expensive. That’s the true cost to society, so there should be a law forcing producers to price their products accurately and incenting them to be more environmentally responsible.