Almost all the plastic alternatives are worse. Plastic is a wonder material and unfairly demonized.
Instead of banning plastics we should have invested in waste management infrastructure in the developing countries where almost all the ocean plastic originates from. Probably would have been cheaper too.
No mention about how most plastics contain endocrine disruptors[1], this is having a real world impact on human procreation. BPA was only the first of many boogie chemicals in this space. This is also impacting children in a way we don't understand fully yet [2].
The biggest impact to human procreation is globalization and falling wages amongst the working class. Survey a few millennials and ask if they'll be having kids. They don't have the time or the money.
We've removed BPA, but there are plenty of other hormone analogues we're exposed to. Soy, for instance.
Endocrine alteration is probably nowhere near as bad as the particulate matter we're breathing in, the amount of sugar we're consuming, or the time we're spending on our phones.
All this to say that I don't think "plastics as hormones" is as bad as the other stuff we have to worry about. We should triage it appropriately.
Instead of banning plastics we should have invested in waste management infrastructure in the developing countries where almost all the ocean plastic originates from. Probably would have been cheaper too.