A completely ridiculous and nonsensical proposal I can only assume was said in jest.

It sounds like a description of most of a deposit system to me, and deposit systems are good at encouraging recycling.

See "core charges" for many automotive parts to incentivize the return of waste for refurbishing at the higher end and bottle deposits for cans/bottles at the lower end. It's weird how things so common in one part of our society can seem so foreign in others.

Hey, if your entire business plan is to produce actual garbage, maybe you should be held responsible for making sure that garbage has a pathway to proper disposal.

The company, sure, but selecting a fall guy to deal with arbitrary expenses will not help get anything done for the environment.

Yes, a jest. But essentially you have to directly impact the take home pay off CEOs as that appears to be the only thing they will change their behaviour for.