It happens that I am a man who cooks, cleans, and cares for the children in essentially the same way the stereotypical 1950s housewife did, while my wife works. By good luck and good planning, we're able to make this work out. It is not necessary for both of us to work outside the home.
An alternate take from Mr. Blagojevic's is that capitalism run rampant has forced the working class into a situation in which both partners in the family must work to make ends meet, leading to the aforementioned rise is disposables. I find the whole thing somewhat tenuous at best, but if you insist on "less cooking and housekeeping" is the cause of plastic in the ocean, then the cause of the cause can be attributed somewhat better to insufficiently fettered capitalism than it can be some vague leftist agenda.
That wages of the working class have been essentially flat for decades is undisputed. That Capitalists are doing increasingly better is undisputed. That the wage gap has been expanding for decades and continues to do so is undisputed. It is, from these undisputed facts, a very very small step to "insufficiently fettered Capitalism is the major cause the both-parents-work situation"
Of course the leftist agenda did include the idea of choices in work, but as usual the Capitalists co-opted this and turned it in to "No, no, it's not that we would prefer that We Get the Money and You Do Not, it's OPPORTUNITY!" but that is an obvious sham.
It's not capitalism that forced both spouses to have to work to make ends meet. It's higher taxes caused by more socialist spending by federal, state and local governments including income, sales, property, social security, medicare, and other taxes. When I first started working, social security was 3% and there were no medicare deductions. Now SS and medicare total is 7.65%, more than double which is then doubled since the employer has to match it. That's only one example. The idea that capitalism makes things more expensive is just Marxist nonsense. It makes things cheaper by providing more competition and creates more wealth and jobs than any other economic system. Just look what happened to Venezuela when the government took over industry and ran markets. The people there are starving. At least the wives don't have to work because there is no work! Neither do husbands.
Plastic is cheaper than a lot of products made the "old" way. It's lighter than glass for example in soda bottles and doesn't break making it safer around all people especially children. It does have its downsides like everything else in creation. But "old" methods also have negatives. On balance I think plastic is amazing and has advanced human societies in a positive way. Here in NJ re-cycling plastics is helping the situation. In some state, you have to pay a deposit on the plastic bottle so it encourages returns where they are recycled. I wonder how much sea life is using that floating plastic for their homes like in the Sargasso Sea where floating logs, sea weed and just plain crap provide protection and homes for many species.