Of course, avoiding the need to recycle plastic in the first place is even more satisfying. A water service generates no plastic trash, as the bottle go back to the service to be refilled. (Or you can refill them yourself at larger grocery stores.) Avoid over-packaged products where possible. One way to avoid all the vacuum-form plastics used to deter shoplifting is to shop at thrift stores that take donations, pawn shops, used-record stores, and such.
Apartment dwellers can't compost, unfortunately, unless the apartment has a compost heap to which you can contribute material.
For me, it's one small trash bag of garbage a week, and the garbage service sorts out what it can into the various recycle streams.
A new store opened in our town where a typewriter repair shop used to be (really!). It's called "
Right On! Refillery." They are innovating "zero waste retail" and sell bulk products you put into refillable containers. They sell products for Bath & Body; Cleaning & Laundry; Hair & Beard Care; Health & Beauty; Kids & Baby; Oral Care; and Pets.
They are setting up a bottle drop-off / refill service which is a great idea. I haven't stopped in yet, but I like the idea.
I'm disappointed that most of their bulk containers appear to be PLASTIC, not glass or ceramic, though (photo). I do see some glass jugs in the lower right.
Their web page says "Less than 9% of plastic actually gets recycled. California dumps more than 12,000 tons of plastic into landfills every day." That is 24 million pounds of plastic dumped every day in California. The state has 40 million people, so that implies every person here is generating 1.7 pounds of plastic waste every day. That seems high to me.