Packaging pet Peeve

Ok, I guess I'm peeved about packaging overall!  

There is sooo much waste involved in packaging, and honestly I think other consumers are annoyed with the excessive packaging as well.  Most of the packaging is plastic, and that comes from oil, which is of course a non-renewable resource and our oil dependence is ridiculous as is.  I wonder how many pounds per person per year is wasted on packaging...and I'm willing to bet a majority of that packaging is overfilling the landfills and eventually leaching all kinds of toxic nasties into the groundwater and soil.  

I will admit that I am anal about recycling the plastic and cardboard bits, but honestly some of the plastic packaging doesn't have a symbol on it, and I put it in the the recycle bin anyway since our recycling company takes plastics 1-7.  I've begun making a bit of a pest of myself contacting the company when I'm uncertain about things such as the inner cereal box bags....can I recycle it without clogging up the system?  If not, then perhaps my next step will be to contact the cereal companies to tell them my concerns.  And why not?  In the last month or so, I've researching sustainable packaging and sustainable packaging coalitions.  I've also been contacting other companies to let them know if their product has too much unnecessary packaging, and to let them know about alternatives that are less toxic (eco foam), and the benefits of less packaging such as less shipping costs.  Who knows, maybe my pet peeve about packaging will somehow make a difference?