> What incentives do companies/governments have to make their products more expensive?

Policy is one. A few weeks ago there were a few posts about the Swedes giving tax breaks on repair labor, the idea being to create an incentive that encourages reuse over waste:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/sep/19/waste-not-want...

And HN discussion on it: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12579879