Packaging waste (of time)

The independent is claiming a success in its campaign against excessive packaging, with a banner headline taking up most of the first page and therefore meaning they need to use more paper to deliver their stories. But I wonder what they expect the government to do about it? Packaging is an EU competence, and has been since the 80's, meaning that the UK government has no power over it. They could get all 642 members of parliament to sign up to this and it will still make no difference. Unless they also sign up to Better Off Out and get us out of the EU they simply do not have the powers to actually do something. Not something that was, or would be, mentioned in the Independent.

Of course where we not in the EU there would be no point involving Parliament at all in the minutiae of packaging details. Without centrally imposed requirements we could just use Pigouvian taxation and the market to find the best level of packaging without the need for any specific legislation at all. By adding the costs of the environmental impact of it into the price the market would find the optimum levels of packaging for different goods, taking into account the individual characteristics of that particular product and its packaging needs. You won't find that mentioned in the Independent either.