Germany started an interesting practice about 25 years ago, in that all manufacturers were made liable to take back all products and packaging they manufacture, disassemble, recycle, or re-use them. It was over the top, and manufacturers truly didn’t know how to handle this (was Mercedes to take back 25 year old cars, disassemble them, and somehow re-use the materials?), but it shows a line of thinking that I like.
If the costs of managing the waste from packaging were somehow placed back onto manufacturers (or importers) of these products, you would see a revolution in packaging design. Yes, the cost is ultimately passed on to the consumer, but by incentivizing manufacturers to reduce that overall cost (to remain competitive), the overall costs (and waste) would be lowered.