When I was a more creative person, I once built a wood case for my computer, it resembled one of those old time radios.
Plastic is not as easy as it looks. Industries that need it such as the medical industry, have to use plastic or they would be not doing a lot of things that can't be done other ways. Industries that don't absolutely need it such as the food industry, shouldn't use it and should use other materials. A good rule for plastic is if something other than plastic can be safely used, use it.
The dust from plastic is getting into everything. Everyone knows about the plastic in the oceans but little publicity is given to the airborne plastic dust that results from ordinary use. It is far more than just plastic rubbish blowing in the wind. It is literally snowing micro plastic everywhere at levels we can't see. Ironically, single use plastic isn't single use as it gets recycled to be used again. The recycled plastic is less durable than virgin plastic and so creates more plastic dust than the virgin plastic.
The discard wayward plastic chips and bits provide the ideal mass transit system for bacteria, viruses, molds, fungi, all the stuff that only grows stronger as it interacts with its cousins in far off parts of the world, formerly blocked from real time interactions by the random insulating actions time and space governed by the natural energy flows provided by air, water, and dust.
When washing plastic fiber clothing it is supposed to be put in a bag so the washed out plastic fibers stay out of the water system. Like everything else there is a fix that no one uses. Fiber manufacturing companies want to use more recycled plastic in their fiber production instead of more natural fibers which will create clothing that sheds more plastic than virgin plastic fibers. It is probably cheaper to use recycled plastic than natural fibers. And everyone supports the use of recycled plastic. If there is too much of it floating around already, why add more.
There is no simple solution. The switch to paper bags and back to wood furniture will increase the amount of trees being harvested for paper. The use of natural fibers increases the amount of water used to irrigate crops. And yet, most of the problem is created by people simply not handling plastic in a reasonable manner. If it was money being thrown away no one would complain. If it burst into flames as soon as it was released we would see it and put out the resulting fires. But plastic moves slowly, operating over time. Look at studies of dust from the 1950's, there is no mention of plastic dust. Fast forward to today, and you find an article about a test to determine the amount of micro plastic particles in fish flesh and instead they find particles of plastic on the outside of the fish fillets as it made it's way from being processed to our tables.
Plastic should only be used where nothing else will work. It's a cheap fix which has exhausted it's welcome. Disposable products and containers could be built out of other materials, like cheap ceramics that don't exist, transparent aluminum, or sources of cellulose, such as weeds, but it far easier to just keep making plastic to fill the gaps. When the gaps in our bodies start getting gummed up with plastic maybe we will find another way.
One thing to consider is that old people's bodies, which have stopped doubling in size every couple of years, are only washed in the pollution. Young developing bodies are building the pollutants into their bodies layer by layer.
The rush to make plastics that break down into more basic substances should be closely examined to see what those substances are. They could just be making it easier for the remnants from plastic to continue to get into everything. If it was just water and oxygen it would be okay, but plastics have several elements in them that the body uses, and some bodies aren't always too selective about what is chemically connected to those elements. That is probably the worst part of the problem. Some people are more sensitive to the elements in their surroundings while others aren't.
Most likely plastic will be modern civilizations answer to the indispensable lead of Roman times. Ironically plastic pipes are safer than metal pipes. Just another inevitable train wreck of progress on the way to the future.
Personally I think it should be treated like it was radioactive. It has a durable half life, decomposes into predictable subunits, is a source of ambient energy, and only works best when it is safely contained.
