I don't remember seeing plastic before I was in my teens

Sure made for that in no time at all, plastic strewn everywhere.

Floods during the 1980s and earlier graves close to rivers washed out, wildlife came floating down with a couple of pairs of shoes and plenty trees, sugarcane building a beach wall around 6 to 8 feet high, never plastic!

Flash floods happen, heavy rains happen, dirt simply does not need to happen at the levels we now witness. School of virtues must be out of the window, flown the nest!