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It's helpful to have durable reusable containers for food and water. It doesn't have to be Pyrex or a Nalgene. It just has to last for years before ending up in the landfill, and of course you'd have to have the habit of using it instead of single-use plastic/styrofoam. Conveniently, this helps individuals save money in addition to being a lesser burden on the environment.

I lived through the "we're running out of landfills" back in the late 1980s and 1990s.  The word came down that anything new had to be compostable, which posed quite the challenge for us polymer types.  We had some interesting, and useless projects during the day, and I got into quite a bit of political trouble because I took on - inadvertently - some BIG VPs who had a lot of skin in the game, and game it was, and I was small fry.  The fact I was right didn't save me.

I clung to "being right" for too long of course, being a stubborn mule.  I really did get in serious career trouble that took years to shake off.  For being right.

All that burfle disappeared rather quietly 2-3 years after I surfaced the facts.

There's something everyday people could do that would help in a small way--stop drinking bottled water.

“Hear, hear”

My guess would be 10% of the stuff in any recycle bin is actually recycled.  We have twp dumpsters outside, one for trash and one for recycle.  The stuff inside the recycle bin is mostly cardboard, but mixed in with a LOT of packaging and plastic bottles and film and whatever.  Now, perhaps this all gets thrown on a line somewhere with humans picking out what can be reused.  I've seen one such line in Cincy back circa 1995, nearly all of it went to landfill.  They would not even pull out a bottle with a cap on it because the materials are different.

And the line went really fast, so even Al cans would pass the workers.  At that time, NO newsprint was recycled, zero, it had negative value.  No magazines, not paper, none of that.

Plastic of course is a broad term for a host of different materials, which is part of the problem.  Most of it is polyethylene, which itself comes in different versions, though they are chemically the same (in basic composition).  Milk jugs are PE.  Then there is polypropylene, milk jug caps are PP.  You don't want PE mixed in with PP if you are recycling.

Then there is PET for short, which makes up the bottles of water and Coke we buy.  The caps are PP.  PET also makes up the polyester in the shirts we wear (polycotton is a blend).

Packaging material is polystyrene foam, something very different from the above chemically.  It takes up a lot of volume when it is 'foamed".  Dow Chemical doesn't like it when we call packaging material Styrofoam, but we do.  They are in Michigan anyway.

And there are "tons" more types, but those are the main ones, unless I'm forgetting something which is likely.  Polyurethane is one more that can be hard or soft depending on which kind it is.  Those spray cans we use to insulate tight areas are polyurethane foam.  A lot of the hard plastic that makes up stuff is PU.

IF you can get a stream that is source separated, you have something you can recycle rather easily, but if it is a mixture, good luck.  It does no good if YOU separate the items nicely and they get thrown on the same truck.

Thanx CD,I've been almost O.C.D.(pun intended)about recycling for at least 2 decades.Even before residential curbside or commercial pick up.Use to place an extra recycling can in the lunch room at work and at home fortunately we had recycling centers in the area.I'd give my metal cans an such to friends who when they collectd a whole load would turn it in for a little coin - car parts,duct work metal shelving,mounting brackets etc.I was surprised by how much one center gave us for old platic stackable chairs and white buckets/lids and such