This has to be written somewhere so that the happy Europeans know what is cooking for them.
Behind the claims for sustainability and green agenda, only the little people are pressured to stop using plastic while the big sharks are making billions manufacturing and selling weapons while preparing for the next war and its `manufacturing of consent'.
Here in The Netherlands, where high tech has always been an economic priority (but not to make actual European computers, printers, phones, even when there once were some), what we are seeing now is the following: I used to pay my internet box 35 euros per month, with only the internet since I did not want a tv or a land line. After the fibre was implemented in my neighbourhood and building (preliminary to the 5G which is now the reason why all the European capitals are `under construction' with huge infrastructure work going on everywhere?) I started receiving phone calls of my providern soon followed by phone calls from the other providers, asking me if I wanted a new abo, because as my provider wrote me, the historical owner of the plugs, KPN, was going to deactivate them because of the change of standard. This coincided with the shuting of the 3G network which until then I could receive on a cell phone I had.
The price offered by all providers started from 44 e per month (instead of 35!) and goes to 52 and 55... they offer a discount for 3 to 6 months and there you go. So we are talking of a 10 euros increase per month. Most people rely on their phones and tablets, but the search results have been reduced by google to mostly commercial, in comparison to the search results from the same browser on a laptop. Other search engines give much less results when it comes to books and academia that they are unusable.
A side effect of this is that I cannot listen anymore to my preferred radio, which I initially was able to catch on the FM, but which disappeared when.... same story, they stopped using this kind of signal last year. I wanted then to buy a `digital radio' but learned then that it would give me only the NL radio and not the Belgian ones... plus a `selection' of foreign radios that of course included the BBC.... Some people complained in the comments to these radios that they catch actually less channels than with the FM they had until then.
The result is that I had to buy a 2nd phone and move from one to the other using them as hotspot when I need the internet, and can hardly listen to the radio anymore.
Welcome to the new world.