How to keep players obsessed with collecting copper

Currently, copper is practically useless, only used for crafting equipment in the early game. Since iron has buckets, why can't there be copper buckets? It's easier to find than iron (thanks to Mojang), and you'd collect more of it. Furthermore, copper tools should be a transition from iron to diamonds, not from stone to iron (someone seems to have forgotten about gold tools). Copper should be mined with iron pickaxes or better, not just stone. Copper can mine diamonds and Nether debris instead of standing alongside stone and gold.