I’d be happy never to see another glass shampoo bottle, and I doubt that toothpaste will ever again be sold in lead tubes. You are right, though, that most plastic packaging could be eliminated.
If recycling made economic sense, people would be bidding for my (unsorted and unwashed) garbage.
“people would be bidding for my (unsorted and unwashed) garbage.”
More likely, they’d be stealing it from your curb. We occasionally DID get thieves taking glass bottles and aluminum cans, but haven’t seen those thieves in a long time. They probably all got promoted to “Porch Pirate First Class.”