Many people stand with the point that plastic products should be replaced with more eco-friendly alternatives like glass or paper. However, I believe that transitioning to other materials is, in the current era, irresponsible and disregards key consequences.
The material, plastic, is flexible, and it can be made solid; moreover, it is also cheap to make and easy to handle so as to not worry about the brittleness or durability. Unlike glass, where it can be easily broken by a clumsy mistake, plastic goods are almost immune to being broken by mistakes due to their flexibility. This not only reduces risk of injury from glass shards but also decreases the amount spent on kitchenware and other products.
Plastic waste has gotten to the point where multiple eco-systems are permanently damaged, many wildlife are endangered, and the entire atmosphere is completely altered. In contrast to paper, which just takes some plant products to produce, plastic is a multi-step production process which products harmful chemical waste and air pollutants. This, when produced in an industrial scale, leads to leakage of the harmful chemicals on the soil, pollutes the air and the water, and creates plastic waste. Consequently, poor environment leads to degradation of health of flora and fauna in the biosphere.
In conclusion, while plastic is an integral part of human society, its consequences are far too prominent. However, I believe that this does not incentivise a complete replacement of plastic, but rather this implies the urgency of creating ways to recycle plastic waste and have a global system to minimize this waste.