Films and flexible packaging are lightweight, durable, and essential to modern food and product distribution—but they remain among the least recycled plastics in the United States. This Washington CORE article examines why these materials are so difficult to collect and process, and how new approaches are beginning to improve their circularity. From recyclable mono-material packaging and secondary sorting technologies to extended producer responsibility laws and stronger end-market demand, the article explores how design, collection, recycling infrastructure, and demand must work together to build a viable recycling system for films and flexible packaging.