So, what do you propose we use?
Steel cans work great but will greatly raise the cost of many products.
Wax coated paper works fine on some things but doesn’t have the flexibility of plastic for multiple squeezes (dish soap etc. Paper with wax or polymer coating doesn’t break down much. It’s also dirtier to produce.
A typical 2 liter bottle has about the same amount of plastic as a test tube does glass. In other words, not much. It gets blown and molded to size.
Everything breaks down over time. Would I prefer people kept their trash and disposed of it properly? Absolutely, however, I refuse to allow some government overlord to tell me what I can use. Your post seems to imply that’s what we need.
Roadways and such have lots of trash. I’m often amazed at how little trash I see in parks and on hiking trails. Most of it looks like stuff that got away, not what was dumped there.
You are correct in that it is usually the plastic that gets away and ends up in our waterways and the oceans. Search “Pacific Garbage Patch” and Pacific Island trash to see where much of that plastic endsto up. There are biodegradable liquid containers that are made from a mix of various types of plant sugars. Once discarded, this material degrades in a matter of months, not years or decades. I don’t like the government dictate either but this single use plastic trash is catastrophic to a many many wildlife species and unless the government gets involved, it will only get worse. We are supposed to be good stewards of this earth and currently we’re not meeting the obligation I trusted to us by our Creator.