Is recycling a sham?

PJ is the best: Love you, the show, life.
My question is: Is recycling a sham? I go to my local recycling center and there’s always the guy fishing out the black plastic containers. Are the yellow ones ok? I can’t get out of the supermarket without salad in plastic containers, chicken tenders in plastic containers, plastic containers in plastic containers. Where does this go after I dump it into my local spot? That place in China? The numbers on the bottom: nobody knows what they mean! Keep going- anything you talk about is my favorite thing of the week