Global warming appears to have shifted into a faster gear. After removing the effects of El Niño, volcanic eruptions, and solar cycles, researchers found that the planet has warmed at roughly 0.35°C per decade over the past ten years, compared with just under 0.2°C per decade from 1970 to 2015. The acceleration, which becomes visible around 2013 to 2015, appeared across five major global temperature datasets with more than 98% statistical certainty.
Plastic bottles are a good example. They are much lighter, so far less handling and transportation cost. Having multiple shapes for various products/companies makes it harder for collection etc. of glass. And glass simply takes a shit ton of energy (natural gas) to produce and recycle. So the climate cost is not simply “yes glass is better for the climate”. It only is when it gets refilled a ton of times and the transportation is only short distances (so when there is a high population density)
Anyway, when halve stop buying cheap shit they don’t even need, we will not only save that many resources but also avoid all of the trash that it inevitably ends up being a few years later. Companies would not continue production of the things.
I doubt half will make them stop production. They’d shift to another wasteful market.
The faster fix would be for companies to purposefully stop producing the garbage that isn’t needed, and to improve the goods that are needed so they aren’t as harmful.