We buy a lot of single use packaging partly because the public was sold on the fact that recycling solves problems, when it does not. Their use has been creepin

We buy a lot of single use packaging partly because the public was sold on the fact that recycling solves problems, when it does not. Their use has been creeping up for decades. When I moved to Germany around 15 years ago I was initially quite shocked to the amount of plastic waste the people there collected. Back home, at least not then, we simply did not have e.g. grapes packaged in a hard plastic case, or even more ludicrous things like salmon in tiny 50g packaging. Ironically, when talking about poorer countries, rich countries usually lament the absence of recycling, or the use of plastic bags, yet their use of plastic is higher both relative and absolute in terms of the amount of things they can afford.