> Empirically, most people weren’t willing to do this stuff

People had to be taught to throw things away. Seriously, just look at vintage 1950s advertisements introducing the concept of "disposables."[0] This was commercial and government interests aligned on what to do about all the production capacity and factories from the war economy now that the war had ended. The conclusion was a total transformation of our society centered around consumption

I think it's important to bring some historical context and remember that what needs to happen here isn't so much "learning" as it is "unlearning"

[0] https://www.huffpost.com/entry/vintage-ads-plastic_n_5cdb176...