https://www.boredpanda.com/unusual-ways-people-dealing-plast...
https://thethaiger.com/hot-news/plastics/majority-of-thais-s...
As far as the U.K is concerned: it will off the use of plastic straws, cotton buds and drink stirrers in april 2020:
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/may/22/england-...
Following a complete ban adopted by the European Parliament in 2018 which will be implemented across all members of the union:
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/oct/24/european...
Seems like politicians do have balls to tackle the problem.
Sadly, we lost so much time over the past decades when everyone knew that this was a problem.
Most of my household waste and that of those around me is endless plastic trays, cling films, bottles from tiny package sizes with high surface area etc.
Even if it's not polluting it's annoying because it takes up so much space unnecessarily. I'd rather go to the store with a bottle and fill it.
That's what is not being addressed. Most people can just stop using straws. Buying food without OTT packaging for most means going to a different town which has a hippie health foods store with bins or whatever and paying over the odds.
It's the sort of thing that could be done in a blanket fashion within a couple of years if a major government just stepped up and said "no bullshit plastic waste everywhere".
That is to say - it's preventable as soon as a major government says so.
Unfortunately none of them seem to have the balls. It's fine and dandy to spend multiple years on political fluff (see UK), but god forbid we make any serious changes in packaging regulation.