The type and form factor of plastic is significant. Types 1 and 2 are more often recycled than any other type (note that "recycled" is different from and rarer

The type and form factor of plastic is significant. Types 1 and 2 are more often recycled than any other type (note that "recycled" is different from and rarer than "collected by municipal waste service"). However even those are not recyclable when too thin, such as with Keurig cups. Detergent and shampoo bottles tend to be highly recyclable. It's true there aren't many alternatives at the moment for certain things like berries. I've never seen a bulk barrel at the grocery store for raspberries (for obvious reasons), and the clear, thin plastic they come in is not usually recycled. At farmers markets you can find them in biodegradable paper cups, but farmers market berries aren't available to most people most of the year. As you note, the only way to fix this is legislation. Plastic is near free because it's a byproduct of something else we already use too much of (crude oil). If its production were taxed in alignment with its environmental cost (e.g. at the same rate it costs to collect it out of the oceans) we'd see far more alternatives.