My frustration with omnipresent packaging waste and greenwashing is not directed at the consumer—often there isn't a workable alternative, or implementing one would take far more resources than the average person has—but man, having a job where I routinely have to interact with products from companies who claim to be "doing better" has really sensitized me to how much of it is still absolutely bullshit
Like the products labeled "recyclable if clean and dry," but it's a wrapper for a peanut butter-based snack; it's NEVER going to be clean and dry... unless the consumer expends more resources than would be equivalently recovered by the materials of that wrapper to scour every single one clean.
Or if it's not contents known for sticking to their container, it's a non-recyclable film. Or a container that looks like it should be recyclable, but it isn't, so the less observant will contaminate their own recycling. Honestly, even the "clean and dry" requirement can be difficult to get people to address for materials that are relatively easy to clean.1
Part of it is raising public awareness about waste and their role in reducing it, definitely, but part of it is, like... do we lecture people about cutting up the rings on a six-pack of soda, or do we ban packaging materials that we know could kill animals if they get into the water?
Some asshole who was never going to choose to do the right thing even with all the resources necessary can't get a turtle killed if the option just isn't on the table.
I bought some powder soap tablets recently because I don't love bar soap for accessibility reasons but buying liquid soap is both a lot of production waste and a lot of physical mass to carry home on the bus. When I opened them up I learned that the box contains about 1/2 to 1/3 what it can actually hold. But it's not wasteful because there's no plastic and the little wrappers are compostable, right? And the cardboard is 30% post-consumer recycled! Meaning... 70% potentially virgin material. Of which half, so 35% of the entire box... didn't need to be harvested.
It grinds my gears.
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It's hard for me to suspend judgement here because I am on trash duty for my house and frequently have to correct the work of my housemates about this exact thing.