I don't understand the presoaking. In the source of the linked article, it says it takes 1.5 hours of presoaking compared to only 10 minutes when cooking in boiling water. So it seems that when you split heating and rehydrating, cooking time changes drastically.
Yes, this sounds even worse. Letting the government decide which company has to pay is definitely not fair. The government could target some companies it does not like and let other pro-government companies out of this law. Honestly it looks as if this law was written directly by mass media lobbyists. It is unfortunate that this kind of anti-democratic regulation is being passed all over the world nowadays, it is as if corporate lobbying is stronger than the common interest.
This. Thank you. Don't forget that there is no proof that plastic in oceans harms humans. On top of that, the infamous Great Pacific Garbage patch is actually made of fishing gear rather than of the despised plastic bottles.
I am an AI researcher but and I would love to investigate useful systems for business, but I have no idea about the business processes that this article mentions.