Again I think you are looking at it from a corporate lens. I see tons of people who spend time to save a buck, because they see every dollar as a dollar they didnt have. And they make a living at small business and don’t want the headache of growing to medium sized.

This is not isolated, but as an example our cans and bottles have a recycle refund. I have seen a woman in a Lexus pull up to my driveway and search through my recycling and grab the bottles and cans I didn’t have time to return. Her back seat was full of bags of stuff she’ll bring to the depot and get cash. Minus gas and time, it doesn’t seem worth it to me, especially if you can afford Lexus full size sedans, but for her its going to be ~$40 she didn’t have yesterday.

I’ve done an audit at a medium sized factory and the owner keeps it very old school, and under 50 employees (to avoid additional regulations that go with that in his province). He is aware that he could invest in technology and expand, become more efficient, and be a big competitor for contracts, but they have made a name and deliver a good product and so work smaller value but steady. They are in the same market as similar places that do 4x the volume/$ales