[317070]

In the UK, most of our recycle bins are being recycled ... by shipping them off to poorer countries where it is pinky-promise recycled.

Local councils are often convinced that a lot is recycled, but it is mostly recycled on paper, not in practice.

[detritus]

Do you have a link to some stats on this? I've seen London's recycling set up and perhaps it's not covering 100% of everything, but it's an impressive and significant capability, so my perspective on matters isn't quite as dire as yours.

Obviously this might not stretch to other towns and cities.

[shafyy]

Not specific to the UK, but here's a good source to read about plastic waste and export: https://ourworldindata.org/plastic-waste-trade