@breedmitch Sailors avoid it (because of these poor currents) but those who have seen it are appalled at the sheer volume of plastic refuse that has accumulated there.
Gee. You do have some strange ideas. I have spent much of my life at sea, first Navy then twelve years living on a ketch, mostly in the Pacific, North & South, and I have not known any other yachties to avoid it. I am looking out my window now at the Pacific Ocean. There is no huge amount of plastic – occasional yes, but not as much as many people like to exaggerate the levels to. I agree that plastic bags should be banned – they are in the process of doing that here right now – but other plastics are vital to our life, health and well being. Many of them are fully recyclable.
As for finding another way to do those things – never going to happen. You might use something like Bakelite (still a form of plastic) to handle electrical insulation, but not in something like an IC with several hundred thousand transistor and silicon junctions in something not much larger than a cigarette filter. There is too much to “find another way” for.
Look around your home and workplace. Count all the devices that you can see. List those devices that do not contain plastic, then look at the remainder. Unless something is entirely metal, wood (plastic glues are used to bind wood) or animal product then it contains some plastic. The water and sewage system uses plastic pipes, the electricity grid uses plastic insulation, your refrigerator and stove/microwave use plastic. Your clothing, even if woolen and cotton, use plastic for zips and buttons. It would be like stepping back to the nineteenth century.