The optimal amount of litter would be difficult to determine. The primary issue would probably be that people don't care enough and don't face the threat of being caught. Taxing the things that get littered probably wouldn't help a whole lot in my view, because I figure the primary determinant is whether the person who buys the product is the type of person to litter. The best use of money might be just cleaning things up.
When you think about litter, are you thinking about on roads, streets, parks, sidewalks, etc? That's usually what I think about. Businesses usually take the time to make sure their store isn't filthy. If we privatized roads, parks, etc. I figure it might be financially worthwhile to clean things up and exclude known litterers. It might approximate the socially optimal level.
Some littering is driven by people not feeling connected to society. I've noticed a distressing amount of litter around campsites of persons experiencing homelessness. The immediate thought is "Homeless people are dirty". A secondary thought is "What incentive do they have for keeping someone else's property clean, they will not experience any added value for cleaning up. They know that eventually someone will make them shove off"
Another observation: Stores that sell snack foods very often have litter near them. Some people will just litter and not look for a trash can; some people will look for a trash can, but will litter if they don't see a trash can; some people will try pretty hard to not litter. What is the incentive for a shop to add more trash cans and keep them in good order? I wish that convenience stores were required to put up a litter fence to keep the litter from leaving their property.
People will also litter where they don't think they are being seen. Just yesterday I came across a dump site on a cliff next to a creek. The creek is relatively inaccessible, so people think that no one will see the trash, and they feel like it just goes away.
Another thought: A lot of snacks etc are sold in plastic wrappers. Plastic is kind of a miracle in that it can help keep products safe from a lot of environmental conditions. When people open these snacks, it's common to tear a smaller piece of plastic off of a larger piece of plastic. Even conscientious people may drop that small piece, or lose track of it. What incentive is there for corporations to develop and use better packaging. Plastic is kind of a miracle, but every miracle can also be a curse.
If you're going so far as to QR-code plastic bags you might as well go a step further and just assign them to purchasers directly. Businesses could assign specific QR coded packaging to customer payment cards on each sale, and therefore identify exactly who was responsible for that piece of litter. Cash sales would have to be paid by the business directly, possibly at a lower rate.
The optimal amount of litter would be difficult to determine. The primary issue would probably be that people don't care enough and don't face the threat of being caught. Taxing the things that get littered probably wouldn't help a whole lot in my view, because I figure the primary determinant is whether the person who buys the product is the type of person to litter. The best use of money might be just cleaning things up.
When you think about litter, are you thinking about on roads, streets, parks, sidewalks, etc? That's usually what I think about. Businesses usually take the time to make sure their store isn't filthy. If we privatized roads, parks, etc. I figure it might be financially worthwhile to clean things up and exclude known litterers. It might approximate the socially optimal level.
The problem with random harsh punishment for littering is that it wouldn't actually be random.
It would be "the police officer uses their discretion in deciding who to write up for littering."
In general I believe it's a bad thing when the police have this amount of discretion, because it leads to corruption -- eg, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-42780382.
We definitely need to be thinking more carefully about how to disincentivize negative externalities. Thought provoking ideas and questions, thanks...
A few observations.
Some littering is driven by people not feeling connected to society. I've noticed a distressing amount of litter around campsites of persons experiencing homelessness. The immediate thought is "Homeless people are dirty". A secondary thought is "What incentive do they have for keeping someone else's property clean, they will not experience any added value for cleaning up. They know that eventually someone will make them shove off"
Another observation: Stores that sell snack foods very often have litter near them. Some people will just litter and not look for a trash can; some people will look for a trash can, but will litter if they don't see a trash can; some people will try pretty hard to not litter. What is the incentive for a shop to add more trash cans and keep them in good order? I wish that convenience stores were required to put up a litter fence to keep the litter from leaving their property.
People will also litter where they don't think they are being seen. Just yesterday I came across a dump site on a cliff next to a creek. The creek is relatively inaccessible, so people think that no one will see the trash, and they feel like it just goes away.
Another thought: A lot of snacks etc are sold in plastic wrappers. Plastic is kind of a miracle in that it can help keep products safe from a lot of environmental conditions. When people open these snacks, it's common to tear a smaller piece of plastic off of a larger piece of plastic. Even conscientious people may drop that small piece, or lose track of it. What incentive is there for corporations to develop and use better packaging. Plastic is kind of a miracle, but every miracle can also be a curse.
If you're going so far as to QR-code plastic bags you might as well go a step further and just assign them to purchasers directly. Businesses could assign specific QR coded packaging to customer payment cards on each sale, and therefore identify exactly who was responsible for that piece of litter. Cash sales would have to be paid by the business directly, possibly at a lower rate.
Of course this is all incredibly dystopian