I dought a government could just out right ban something, because “freedom” like you say.

Though the action of taxing something is IMO preferred, especially for a government. It allows people, or corporation’s, to still attain or use a product, but they need to be willing to pay the costs. (ie. Freedom & Capitalism)

The only thing i would change is the amount of tax. Paying a few cents for a plastic bag as a example is still “cheeper” in a one time cost for a consumer, then buying a reusable bag or paper bag. And that plastic material is still cheep enough for manufacturer to buy, create the bag, and sell it at a profit.

Tax for polluting materials should be equivalent to both the “true cost” and the “external costs”, such as environmental costs and public health costs. These are a little harder to quantify but should be accounted for.

This means if a company wants to use plastic or some other material for bottled water it needs to pay the full costs of said material or choose to use something “cheeper” like glass (after accounting for the tax on plastics).

This would work similar to how counties enact tariffs on imported goods. And yea it would probably mean items would become more expensive as plastic is pretty light compared to glass meaning higher fuel/transportation costs.