Your comment reminds me of PBS show on recycling:
What exactly happens after we smugly put our items in the “recycle bin”?
So they tried to trace it and it varied. Some items, I think paper and glass, had a pretty decent process for reuse. Aluminum (and other base metals) were the best, which is why the FREE MARKET pays people enough to pick up contains and turn them in.
But plastic was very interesting - and it is very hard to recycle (at least according to that show). About all they could find was that the plastic got bundled up and then put on a huge ship and sent to Taiwan. They could not figure out what happened after that. But since Taiwan actually paid for the plastic, one can probably assume they simply burn it for fuel.
But to the skinny, scrawny-faced, liberal in New York City, WHO CARES, for he did his part to SAVE THE WORLD.
And the easterly wind carried the smoke to...
CALIFORNIA!