What are we complaining about? Is it about the industrialization, economy and jobs that produced plastics? How far do we want to go back? Industries came out of scientific advances and business, which came from social dynamics and foundational academics such as mathematics and logic, which in turn were a result of leisure time due to civilizations, settlements, more food availability, farming, tools etc. All this was inevitable and incremental. Nothing happened overnight. We didn't cause it. And we won't be doing anything to stop it.
There is a story in Hindu mythology about churning of the milk ocean, by gods and demons in cooperation, using a mountain as the churning rod, with an objective of extracting the nectar of immortality. After a great amount of churning, a great poison comes out which must be consumed, otherwise it ends the universe. Lord Shiva consumes it, but keeps it in his throat, to save himself and the universe. When the Nectar finally comes out, somehow gods trick the demons, to keep the nectar to themselves.
Sometimes it occurs to me that this story foretold the extraction of oil from ocean deeps, giving the luxuries to the developed world and pollution to the third world.
Well, I don't know if the story foretold the future or not. But in any case, why didn't Shiva let the world end? We would not have all this shitty problems now. Look at it: we can't even drink water anymore without getting harmful chemicals.