2 things come to mind.
1. You have made an immediate contribution to the world economy by spending money albeit a small amount and if everyone in the states had spent that small amount in one day then 3 billion dollars in one day would have been consumed to help protect jobs.
2. If that bit of plastic was not noticed by you but was crushed by a wheel or swept away by nature or a sweeper then that would have been a loss of $ 12 to the economy. Just think how much is lost to landfill, to our oceans or up in smoke . I dare to speculate a Trillion a week of lost revenue from the USA alone .