Recently, I was campaigning for an environmental NGO in Germany (summer job) and til now I didn't know that Germany is such a big plastics-user! Why I wouldn't have thought of that? Every 2nd person we approached answered with "we already do so much to avoid plastics and protect the environment, you would not believe!"... But at least we are actively approaching this issue, as the EU is banning single-use plastics![1]

Another observation (ofc an anecdote): No one did deny the actual existence of the problem - but the richer the person was (judging from his appearance), the more did he deny our (western world) contribution to the problem! (at least as a responsible consumer)

[1]https://www.reuters.com/article/us-europe-environment-plasti...