Recycling Day - a good or a bad thing?

Just put out the recycling for kerbside collection tomorrow.... great to get it all out of my kitchen!! 1 and a half black dustbins completely full of plastic pots, bottles, trays, foil and tins 1 green wheelie bin full of woody garden waste about 10kg of paper 6 wine bottles Plus I had a meeting at the Red Barn tonight so took my cardboard up there and I took a carrier bag full of plastic film to the plastic bag bin at Sainsburys and this week I recycled 3 bags of toys and 2 bags of clothes Meanwhile in my grey wheelie bin there lies one bag of rubbish weighing 3.1 kg. Mixed feelings about all this - on the one hand it is amazing how much you can recycle in Shropshire when you put your mind to it but, then again, we have used so much stuff, so much energy has gone into making all that stuff, everything comes in so much packaging...... SO now i have a dual challenge - the first to try and eliminate non recyclable waste and the second is to reduce the overall amount of stuff we produce as a family. Any tips on where to shop to reduce packaging gratefully received thanks ali