[stult]

I don’t think any of the irreplaceable uses of plastics are really major contributors to the problem. eg if syringes were the only plastic item around, this would not be an issue simply because there aren’t that many syringes and they aren’t generally reused (and so don’t shed plastics as much as water bottles with tops being screwed on and off frequently). It’s the common, day-to-day plastic items like food containers and synthetic clothes. Those are hardly irreplaceable use cases, although obviously other solutions are going to be more expensive than plastics.

[kongolongo]

You're right if we eliminated all non-essential use cases it there would be a lot less microplastics, but even in the cases where it's readily replaceable is the extra expenses in all of those product categories worth it over the highly speculative health concerns? I think cumulatively the expenses can be more drastic than at first glance, for example like think of all the non-essential but extremely common use in items like beauty products, food packaging, electronics, etc.

[sjg007]

Another issue is that aluminum cans and food packaging is lined with a plastic residue.

It's almost impossible to get away from it. Also plastic bags, clothes shed into the environment and get eaten by fish and animals.

So maybe we all need to be vegetarian.