OK, so, let's inject some nuance into this.
There are cases where there is no other choice because to use something else would be disastrous. In fact, this is in an area I have extensive knowledge of because I used to work for a Red Cross Blood Testing Center.
Before sterile, single use plastic bags were available for storing and moving blood, they were kept in reusable glass jars that would get sealed similarly to the vials they use for injectable drugs.
It worked, mostly, however, the used glass was a nightmare to keep absolutely clean and sterile, especially the lip area where the seal was seated, and the flat bottoms where the flat part of the glass bottle met the bottle's walls. The shoulders were also difficult, and if you've tried to clean narrow mouthed wine bottles, you've seen this. More often than not, a glass bottle would end up contaminated and thus unusable, or worse, end up introducing an infection to a patient. Also, the tubes and needles, also usually reusable, were an even worse nightmare to keep completely mold and bacteria free, even with sterilization. It could also spread other communicable diseases.
The other issue was the fact that the glass bottles were glass: bulky to store, heavy, and they broke easily. You drop one bottle of blood in a surgery setting, and you've basically conatminated the operating theater AND lost a precious pint of blood in the process. This was especially harrowing if the blood needed was a rarer blood type.
Enter the revolution of single use plastic blood bags and tubes. The bags could be manufactured in a sterile environment. The blood was donated directly into the bag. The valves on the bags were also plastic and never reused. If you drop a bag, while it's possible one could accidentially rupture one, it's highly unlikely, and if you drop a box of blood, you won't lose a whole crate of blood. Since they can lie nearly flat, you can transport a lot of blood much more safely. The only real way you can really spoil blood taken in plastic is either a) the phlebotomist uses bad technique or b) store it at the wrong temperature.
Plastics have revelutionized medical care, making it much safer. I mean, I'm only talking about the blood supply here, but everything in the medical industry, from packaging to surgery consumables, are made safer by plastics, because they can be kept absolutely sterile and safe to use.
The environment isn't ruined because a disabled person uses a plastic straw, or medical staff use plastic blood bags, or food is pacakged in sterile plastic packaging so that we don't get sick from spoiled food. It's ruined because corporations don't want to invest in the research to make better plastics that are more environmentally friendly and research to make recycling or breaking down plastics much more environmentally useful. Yes, we should be telling our governments to be regulating it and investing in research, but some folks seem to think we can live without plastics all together and we can't because people would die from things that they don't die of anymore.
