do we really need to make all this plastic?

 https://www.wired.com/story/the-microplastic-crisis-is-getting-exponentially-worse/

 

Overall, the team found that microplastic levels have been doubling in Arctic Ocean sediments every 23 years. That mirrors a previous study of ocean sediments off the coast of Southern California, which found concentrations to be doubling every 15 years. Other researchers have found an exponential rise in contamination in urban lake sediments. 

The problem is likely to keep getting worse, lead author Seung-Kyu Kim, a marine scientist at Incheon National University, told WIRED by email. “The input of microplastics into the Arctic has increased exponentially over the past decades, with an annual increase rate of 3 percent,” Kim writes. “The mass production of plastic at an 8.4 percent annual increase—coupled with inefficient waste management systems—is projected to further increase loads of plastic entering the ocean for the next several decades, and thus plastic entering the Arctic will increase proportionally.”

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So, can we talk to management and see about 1) replacements for plastic, and 2) minimising the current use?  Do the products I get in the mail that are essentially triple-bagged in plastic really need that?  Or is the plastic lobby just too strong to break?