One other benefit to recycling other than reducing new material usage is keeping stuff out of landfills. Landfills are anaerobic, which means most bacteria that breaks stuff down can&#x27;t live in them, so things break down extremely slowly[1]. That slow breakdown means we need more space for landfills, which are toxic environments. So even if the recycling process is neutral, or even somewhat more costly than producing new material, keeping stuff out of landfills is another benefit that you might not have considered in your calculation.<p>In addition, cities with recycling programs can actually sell the material they gather back to companies, literally turning garbage into money and creating a revenue source for the city[2,3]. One important component in this is that the cities can get a higher price for higher quality recycling streams, where the output is all composed of one type of material. This is why, even though St Paul is now single-sort, I still separate my paper from the other recycling. It helps keep the paper higher quality by avoiding getting it dirty and wet, and costs me no real effort.<p>[1] <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;environment.about.com&#x2F;od&#x2F;recycling&#x2F;a&#x2F;biodegradable.htm" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;environment.about.com&#x2F;od&#x2F;recycling&#x2F;a&#x2F;biodegradable.ht...</a><p>[2] <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;arstechnica.com&#x2F;science&#x2F;2015&#x2F;03&#x2F;recycling-in-the-us-an-off-again-on-again-love-affair&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;arstechnica.com&#x2F;science&#x2F;2015&#x2F;03&#x2F;recycling-in-the-us-a...</a><p>[3] <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;arstechnica.co.uk&#x2F;science&#x2F;2015&#x2F;12&#x2F;recycling-matching-high-tech-materials-science-with-economics-that-work&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;arstechnica.co.uk&#x2F;science&#x2F;2015&#x2F;12&#x2F;recycling-matching-...</a>