Exactly this. I tried to recycle paper in the 90s in my country and could not for the life of me find out where to go. I had come home from living in a country that did have recycling bins on every corner but even driving around, I could find zero paper recycling.
Even when aware and trying our best, we are quite powerless in general.
And yet, I still recycle because what the hell else can I do? Just give up and send to landfill? Or hope in the dark that it's going to recycling.
We already reuse and reduce, I have some clothing from over 20 years ago.