Dumb question but…why do humans keep using toxic chemicals for cooking and storing food? Surely we can find something edible.
The smart companies try to extent the shelf life as long as possible. And make storage easy.
Plastic and chemicals are great for those.
Put some chemicals in that make your company profitable while the gov deems it safe? A no brainer.
Only non chemical alternative is the freezer.
Waxes are pretty natural chemicals, even when they're refined from oil. We used to use them all the time for fresh food storage. I assume they're more expensive than fluorinated packaging though.
For example, tiffin carriers, or dabbas, have existed for a very long time, but require frequent cleaning, and take up more space.
When we decided that disposable packaging was an acceptable level of waste to incur, we set ourselves on a path to its ubiquity.
"I don't want to use oil when frying eggs."
I know all the arguments that follow, I'm just sayin'.