The problem is that we are told to reduce, reuse, recycle. In that order.
Instead people are told there is a solution for recycling. They feel like the problem of plastic waste is solved. So they don’t make any efforts to reduce or reuse their waste.
I mean the problem of plastic waste is kinda solved, we just decided that we didn't like the solution, landfills. The best thing you can do for your waste is live somewhere that has well-managed landfills and ensure your trash goes there.
There's not really anything in the way of grass-roots waste reduction that scales. I'm not really offered a choice between product and product-without-plastic. My trash is filled every week with all manner of plastic I didn't ask for. I would be over the moon if I could go to the grocery store and all the plastic was aluminum, paper, and glass— (bonus if I could return the containers) but that decision is made by the bean counters.
I'd throw whatever little weight I had behind legislation to make it so but at least at the state level it would never pass. The single-use plastic bag ban was met with a reaction at the same level as if the people for it killed everyone's dog.
Sorry, what do you think a landfill is? In the UK it's a big area where rubbish is dumped, it's exposed to the elements, microplastics wash and blow away from such sites.
Eventually, when decommissioned the area gets covered with dirt.
How is that kinda solved, do you mean like "I don't live near a landfill so I assume that air full of microplastics isn't the air I'm breathing and that water isn't the water I consume"? That sort of solved? Because beyond that I ain't seeing it.
I think in industry terms you're describing a dump. Landfills have liner systems on the sides and bottom, sumps to collect and dispose of trash juice, gas collectors, they're compacted, netted, covered daily to prevent trash from blowing away, then capped and sealed with clay when full, and (in the US) required to be monitored for 30 years for environmental problems and to ensure the decomposition is going as expected.
The microplastics in your air and water probably aren't coming from landfills, in fact the solution to that is very likely to be more landfills. Those plastics come from coastal countries lacking good waste management who dump plastic into rivers and oceans, and the solution is painfully boring— municipal waste management.
Instead people are told there is a solution for recycling. They feel like the problem of plastic waste is solved. So they don’t make any efforts to reduce or reuse their waste.