You know, I think I already mentioned it somewhere in a past conversation that I've been wondering how it came that the many throw-away items made of plastic became standard all over the world? (like throw-away knife, fork and spoon and such stuff)
And what it ended up with was "actually nobody knows that concretely". It just emerged and - commonly it is regarded as a product of the amassing of wealth in the Western developed world. Literally "it came because the wealthy part of the world could afford it to produce things for a one-time-use".
But, due to many other things I know meanwhile which have a story reaching farer back into history, I developed doubt in this explanation pattern.
Something doesn't happen because of no reason - that is what you can say for sure. Someone makes it happen. Someone wants it to happen.
So for the mysterious story of the rise of plastic in so many everyday life items, this must apply too. It's not a simple story of "we were so wealthy we ould afford it to easily throw things away".
Only nobody seems to know the real reason why, and the story how circumstances developed are blurred.