recycling is energy costing. It costs more to make products from recycled stuff than from original. It’s an energy waster. But heck, it helps global warming or saves the rats or something.
I once tried to explain this to a liberal who wanted me to recycle paper at the office. I explained that, if nobody wanted to pay me for used paper, at BEST recycling was a break even as far as energy is concerned....but more likely used more. In a free market, cost of just about anything is directly related to the energy needed to make and ship it. If new paper costs less, it must have a lower ‘carbon footprint’.
She shrugged it off.
It depends on the product.