I'm not making a case for plastic being/creating a "problem". Plastic as a technology has allowed us to make cheap, single use products that are easy to replace

I'm not making a case for plastic being/creating a "problem". Plastic as a technology has allowed us to make cheap, single use products that are easy to replace and hard to repair. Like you are saying masks, gloves, etc. In the broader sense, human thinking has shifted to this mode. We can't fix this start over, it reduces the pride of ownership and being accountable for your things. When you have no pride of your material possession, why would you develop pride for culture, institutions, countries. These are all things that we can just make to our pleasing. I would argue that this might not be a global pandemic if it were not for global trade/consumerism.