2 hours ago, Peterkin said:

We wouldn't need to reduce consumption so much, if we just stopped the waste.

I've been saying this for years.  +1

I was told this by an American fellow student many years ago,

"It used to be the duty of every citizen to waste as much as he can.
But there has been a breakthrough and it has now been confirmed that Big Government can waste far more efficiently and in far large amounts, than any citizen.
So all citizens can stand down from this duty as their government will do it for them"

Oh, I think the private sector still does its share. However thrifty and ecology-conscious individual citizens may be, business always has higher priorities: they'll spend a lot more on advertising their greenness than actually cutting down on their toxic byproducts and waste.