There should be law that makes companies directly responsible for what happens to their packaging materials. Whatever a company brings into this world is their responsibility to recycle. Yes it adds overhead, but it makes people a lot more aware, and forces them to take responsibility of the impact they are having.

Why shouldn’t packaging be designed to be easily transformed into something useful, or even into functional community art projects?

A temple of coke cans for example. If they going to last forever it might as well be in a form that benefits communities.

Plastics have already been banned in certain countries.

Or are there to many lobbying in the wrong direction?