Yeah it’s pretty annoying how useless most local recycling is. I’ve heard a number of times that most of it just gets landfilled anyway because it’s simply not worth recycling, or not able to be recycled in that particular location. But either it makes economic sense or it doesn’t. (If the government has to subsidize it… it probably doesn’t.) Plastic never seems to work out, even with government help–too many different kinds, and it’s nasty stuff.
I’m not worried about landfill space whatsoever (it’s not such a big problem) but plastic ■■■■ getting into the environment and ruining everyone and everything’s health? Heck yeah.
On the other hand, modern landfills are pretty good about keeping this junk contained. Some others here have also pointed out that the amount of waste we’re producing doing this as a hobby dwarfs the waste put out from industrial work.
So I look forward to easier to recycle materials (partly for psychological reasons I guess) but… meh, just toss it out in the trash. Bag it well so it’s unlikely to go all over the place by accident if the main bag breaks (finally a use for some of those extra plastic bags). An accidental spill would probably be the main concern for adding more microplastic garbage to our environment.
There’s a thread around here I started about truly biodegradable filament… pretty limited so far, but it is an option if you’re doing a lot of prototyping. I still haven’t tried it yet.