Ways to reduce waste part 2: Whose responsibility is it?

We're lucky in Australia that waste reduction is mandatory in the sense that all of us have recycle bins in our homes. So we all have an entrenched mindfullness about recycling and such. But how much are you recycling? If you're like us the recycle bin is constantly overfull and the normal bin less than a third. What if we were to buy less things that needed to be recycled in the first place, or only things that could be reused?

The US recently had a national recycled campaign organised by the National Recycling Coalition One school of thought from Treehugger is that

Recycling is simply the transfer of producer responsibility for what they produce to the taxpayer who has to pick it up and take it away.

The author highlights to role of big business in waste reduction 'shams' where waste may be recycled (with massive water usage and carbon footprints) rather than the use of reusable products or indeed deposited. Imagine how empty the recycle bin would be if we could re-fill wine bottles, milk bottles, beer bottles and the like? What if we paid a deposit which was reimbursed upon their return?