I’m the parent poster here and I absolutely do not think it is the job of the government to solve problems like this. Consumers need to stop giving money to corporations whose only motivation is profit.

> I absolutely do not think it is the job of the government to solve problems like this

Well then, I guess we'll have to watch as this problem will remain unsolved. If you want an unregulated market, people will do what they want, and they happen to want to give money to corporations whose only motivation is profit, because they get direct benefit from those transactions. Like cheap disposable halloween costumes, to take your own example.

Government has addressed economic externalities countless times with laws restricting various types of pollution, funding public transit, public health, education, etc. It is most definitely the government's job to fix such externalities by adjusting incentives on third party effects. No one else can achieve that.

Maybe you think this disposable-products externality is somehow special, but I don't really see a case for that.

Exactly. If it wasn't for the economic systems set up by the government there would be no reason to make repairing things hard because that is simply a byproduct of the current system that is controlled by the government.