Before recycling became a religion back in the older days the coke and milk glass bottles were returned and reused. Also Americans are experts at recycling unprofitable, worthless politicians. Basura....
So were cloth diapers. It takes 1 of those disposable ones 500 yrs to decompose.
We live rural and there is only cardboard and plastic bags that you take to the recycle bin. Rest you’d have to take to a regular dump. So you just toss it in the trash. We do the first 2. I reuse the plastic bags for food waste and bathroom trash. Then the excess gets taken up to Kroger’s and put in their bag recycle box.
No matter how bad the kooks want it, The ONLY things worth home recycling are aluminum (definitely, and the issue is refining energy, not scarcity) and electronics (maybe, and if we made a better effort at it, definitely). Period. Everything else is just for show. There is no shortage of sand for glass and trees for paper. These things are wildly energy-negative to recycle.