Our love for plastic is all-consuming. It is the irresistible wonder material: mouldable, inert, light and highly versatile, used not just in toys and toothbrushes but in pacemakers, teabags and spaceships. But this is a paradoxical relationship, and not a healthy one: we rely on it too much and value it too little, regarding it as cheap and disposable.

The cost is becoming obvious. Our planet is being buried under a mountain of plastic. Of the 8.3bn tonnes produced between the 1950s and 2015, four-fifths lies in landfill or in our natural environment. Once we marvelled at plastic’s durability; now we lament the centuries it takes to decompose. The impact on our oceans, our landscapes and our wildlife is undeniable. But far from reversing course, we are accelerating: we have made roughly as much plastic since 2000 as we did in all the years before.

It is not only out there: it is in here. The Guardian has revealed that microplastic contamination has been found in tap water samples from around the world: the Orb Media investigation found that 94% of samples from the US were contaminated, and even in European nations, which had the lowest rate, 72% were affected. Other research has found tiny pieces of plastic in seafood, and fibres in the air in people’s homes.

We do not know how this affects our health. But we do know that there is good reason to be concerned. Experts fear the spread of plastic nanoparticles, so minute that they could be able to penetrate our organs. They warn too that studies show microplastics can attract bacteria found in sewage, and toxic chemicals which they release into the bodies of wild animals. Why should we imagine that we will be immune?

Last year, the environmental audit committee urged the government to draw up a research strategy on microplastic pollution, prioritising human health impacts and ways to reduce pollution. In-depth work is needed on where microplastics come from; how they get into food and water, and in what quantities; and whether they remain in our bodies and leach chemicals into our guts or affect other organs.

We cannot afford to wait for the results as we watch plastic take over our planet. Use in Asia is surging: China accounts for more than a quarter of global demand for polyethylene terephthalate bottles. In many parts of the world, clean drinking water means bottled water. Even in the UK, consumers cannot avoid plastics if we try. The vogue for zero-waste grocery stores, where customers bring their own containers and weigh out what they want, is likely to remain a niche one. Consumers are an important part of the story, but a relatively small one.

Government action will be required to push resistant industry into the changes needed, both in Britain and abroad. Most plastic is recyclable; but less than a 10th of that produced is actually recycled. So the Scottish government’s announcement of a deposit return scheme for drinks containers is welcome. In Norway and other European countries, taxes are used to incentivise businesses to meet recycling targets.

Even that is just a start in changing our mindset so that we design items with their end already in mind. The Ellen MacArthur Foundation and World Economic Forum produced a striking portrait of a new plastics economy, where the materials do not end up as waste. That means wider use of reusable packaging, a radical increase in recycling and greater adoption of industrially compostable plastic packaging.

The real problem is not plastic: it’s us. We need not reject the wonder material, but instead regain our sense of wonder, learning to treat it as a treasure instead of trash.