In addition to manufactured demand, disposable products are more convenient than reusable ones, for customers and providers. I believe that reusable products can be both convenient and profitable if treated as a service (a type of industry our economy thrives on). For example, imagine if your local gas station sold clean reusable bottles of tap water and gave credit for bringing in dirty bottles. They would essentially be charging for the washing and the convenience of having a bottle ready whenever the customer is ready. However, I am not sure if such systems are practical, as they do not provide incentive to create infrastructure. In other words, no company would want to go into producing these bottles if they can only profit occasionally. This is probably where the government should step in. Unfortunately, some would attempt to convince you (with a frightening religious zeal) that the free market would take care of everything. But we have seen historically that free markets are easily exploitable or tend to converge on wasteful systems that resemble equilibrium only at the surface. Small businesses my ass.