When we fist had Supermarkets for the big weekly shop (Mid 1970s onwards)there was always a big stack of cardboard boxes and fruit trays near the checkouts. We packed into boxes and put them in the back of dad's van. The system worked perfectly. Usually dad kept the empty boxes in the van ready for another shop.
Nowadays they won't let you use them, so they go in skips at the back of the store. A standard "small" shop for our family can fill anything from six to fifteen carrier bags, which are so thin and badly made that anything with corners (cereal boxes etc.) rip the bags so they are not fit to use again. Often they don't even survivre being lifted out of the car at the home end of the journey. Sometimes they son't even reach the trolley.
As for bottl;ed drinks. WQe used to pay a deposit on the bottle and get it back when the bottle was returned. Now all we can do is throw them out.
Recycling is mainly based on lies. The only sensible fate for an unbroken bottle is to wash and refill. Smashing them up, melting them again and remoulding into another bottle just adds to global warming.
Quack!
GtD.