Carbon tax and product re-design

Aguanomics David Zetland has a take on carbon taxes and re-design of product:

Stories at Grist and AngryBear on the most recent demonic action of WalMart — high efficiency milk containers.*

Basically, they save heaps of water (for cleaning) and energy (for hauling) by cutting out most of the infrastructure necessary to support the current gallon jugs. The bad news is that the plastic containers do not appear to be more reusuable than the current ones (let alone glass). A deposit and reuse system for these suckers would reduce trash and virgin materials use.

Bottom Line: WalMart arrived at this “innovation” by applying cost accounting to every step in the milk production and distribution process. If there is a carbon tax, WalMart will probably be the first company to change its practices in response — and pass the savings to consumers.