It's unbelievable, the ignorance of humanity. This is a huge issue you discussing in your post and thank you for raising awareness!

Here in the UK, a few years ago, a new law was introduced, up until that point the plastic bags were given away for free, now it's a 5p charge. While 5p is nothing, thank god people are cheap and rather not buy bags....instead of buying bags, they complain, why should this cost money? Nothing angers me more than this, it's not about the freakin' 5p, it's about not killing mother nature!! Good news is, this new law greatly reduced the use of plastic bags and the cost of all bags purchased going into the environmental fund.

In Germany (and also noticed in some other Western European countries) the water is very cheap, the plastic bottle is more expensive than the water which comes with it. In every supermarket there is a recycle machine which instantly shrinks the bottles and gives back the cost of the bottle, it's a shame this is not utilised in every country. (for ex. in the UK, people just throw away the bottles...)
People, especially leaders of the world (and I don't want to point with fingers) should finally wake up!!

Thanks for sharing :)