Some people believe that consumers are responsible for the amount of packaging waste, while others think that manufacturers and governments should take responsibility. Discuss both views and give your own opinion.

Admittedly, consumers are not entirely blameless. The most obvious point is that shoppers often choose convenience over the environment, buying sliced fruit in disposable trays when whole fruit sits unwrapped beside it. In Casablanca,

for instance

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, most families still accept a new plastic bag for every purchase at the market, even though cloth bags are cheap and widely available. Closely linked to

this

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is the matter of disposal, since the finest recycling scheme fails if households mix glass with food waste or simply leave rubbish in the street.

Nevertheless

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, placing the burden on individuals ignores where the real decisions are made. The most important reason is that a customer can only choose from what is on the shelf, and when every brand of toothpaste comes in a box inside a transparent sleeve, refusing it means going without.

Moreover

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, firms have both the knowledge and the money to design better alternatives,

whereas

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a single household has neither. Morocco's national ban on plastic bags,

for example

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, cut their use sharply within a year, not because shoppers suddenly became virtuous but because retailers were no longer allowed to offer them. Governments,

therefore

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, should oblige manufacturers to reduce wrapping and to pay for the collection of whatever remains, and,

consequently

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, the cost of waste would fall on those who create it.