Agree. The biggest issue with plastic recycling is probably that products like packaging are optimized according to marketing criteria (colourful/shiny/coated)

Agree. The biggest issue with plastic recycling is probably that products like packaging are optimized according to marketing criteria (colourful/shiny/coated) and adding a little bit of convenience for consumers (glue to reseal after opening). This way things end up being made from multiple components which aren't easily separable, thus difficult to (if at all) recycle. Making simple packaging where the whole thing is made from a single (widely used, standardized) variant of plastic and instead of being coated or multi layered, things like labels ought to be fixed in a way that allows easy separation (easily soluble glue). But it's not gonna happen soon, since it'd basically come down to throwing away all those neat "innovations" the packaging industry has developed. Also, if there's one thing retailers care about it's products that look shiny and colourful and entice people to buy them. They're hardly going to give that up.