Measuring things in terms of carbon dioxide is idiotic and foolish. We should recycle metals because of what happens when you dig stuff up. We should recycle paper because of the stuff that happens when you process trees. Same with glass. It isn’t the production of carbon dioxide that causes recycled aluminum to be useful it’s the mining and processing of bauxite ore and the big holes that have to be dug to get it, usually in some other country where we don’t see it. And paper because of water pollution by paper factories that use bleach to make it white.
Around here you can’t give cardboard away for recycling.