Consumers don't have much choice besides a recycling bin and a trash bin. Landfills are actually a decent option for plastics because the plastic stays in tact (no shredding - creating more microplastics) and in one place - stopping it from escaping into the local ecosystem. Most will use the recycling bin for plastics because they see that as the best option while not knowing the implications of recycling plastic in the United States.
Norway has a good system where plastic bottles are made with more plastic to make them thicker/durable, and when the bottles are recycled they are cleaned and reused [0].
Where I live (a US city) we're strongly encouraged to recycle plastic, by a policy that limits trash bags and makes putting out extra fairly expensive, but allows unlimited recycling, including plastic.
The recycling program also uses plastic open-top bins as the standard collection container. You can imagine what this "green" policy causes on windy days. That's right: litter-tornadoes. Been that way for years, all I can figure is whoever's got the contract has important political connections. It's very, very dumb.
Sorry to hear that, policies like that are often in good faith but lack important details like you described. It reminds me of when I went to an earth day fair and one of the tents was selling athleisure made from recycled bottles. It had a sizeable crowd - I was thinking about how many of those who bought something went home feeling like they had done the right thing and had some quality fitness apparel to show for it - only to throw them in a washing machine without a microplastic filter on it.
That article doesn't say the bottles are cleaned and reused, it says they have a bottle deposit system and process the recycled material to a high standard.
"What's more, 92 percent of the bottles recycled yield such high quality material, it can be used again in drink bottles. In some cases, the system has already reused the same material more than 50 times."
Also: "Its success is unarguable – 97% of all plastic drinks bottles in Norway are recycled, 92% to such a high standard that they are turned back into drinks bottles. Maldum says some of the material has been recycled more than 50 times already. Less than 1% of plastic bottles end up in the environment." [0]
Just articles I found quickly, my friend who split his time between the US and Norway before the pandemic was telling me about it.
Norway has a good system where plastic bottles are made with more plastic to make them thicker/durable, and when the bottles are recycled they are cleaned and reused [0].
[0]: https://www.sciencealert.com/norway-s-recycling-scheme-is-so...