We've spent our lifetimes filling our lives, shelves, and even our bodies with plastic due to the price and nature of how we are allowed to manipulate this material. This haphazard choice and reliance have fundamentally altered our future and the course of the planet.
Recycling doesn't work. It's just a waste tossed somewhere else so we don't see the trash that we make. And even when it's being used to make new products it's rarely energy efficient and is just a way to make consumers less guilty of the choices they make. Plastic waste just accumulates as none of it is banned or controlled by an ever-ineffectual government while we are sold an assortment of colorful and useless packaging that will be the death of us.