Sadly, from what I've been told, a good deal of the plastic refuse doesn't get recycled because it's not cost effective and there's more than can be used. And plastic recycling is also not as guilt reducing as we'd all like because of the resources needed to recycle it.
This has probably been posted before, but this is an impressive incentive to use the cloth or re-usable bags
http://www.poconorecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080506/MULTIMEDIA02/80505016
I've looked, but can't find the article about "plastic island" that I read earlier this year that was quite alarming as it discussed the effects of the hormone-effecting toxins released by all the plastics, along with the more obvious damage of the wildlife eating bags and such. It's all pretty disturbing and I'm always irritated at the amount of seemingly unnecessary packaging all of our stuff has.
The one small thing I can do is carry my re-usable bags whenever I shop and I must say it's getting to be less and less nerdy to be seen doing it.