Yeah — I think a “you sell it, you scrap it” law would de-externalize a lot of really harmful end-user sales: not just for source manufacturers, but every middle-man in between.
Not sure if that is enough given that most product returns are destroyed - from iPads to brand new clothes. So than that rule is already out I think?
Though an extension that that is forbidden in some sense should be fair. Or a rule that forbids the relative amount of trash produced by a company?
Here in Norway we have a law to handle recycling and waste handling of electrical equipment[1].
It requires importers and producers of electrical and electronic equipment to be a member of a return company like Norsirk or RENAS[2], directly funding the collection, recycling and waste handling.
Something similar could be introduced for other product groups as well like clothes.
The customer ends up holding the negative exernality with little ability to affect the upstream pipeline. By sending the waste "back up the pipe" it becomes each middle-company's problem. The point being that each company now has to consider how to get rid of their own generated waste. It de-externalizes the waste problem.
If they choose to put the waste in to a landfill, then so be it: they have to pay to do that.
