You must explore:

The environmental benefits of recycling aluminum and the environmental damage caused by making aluminum cans from raw materials: http://www.sddt.com/~cleansd/trivia.html; www.grn.com/faq/0296.html; http://www.earthsystems.org/cri/envirobenefits2.htm

The environmental benefits of recycling plastics and the environmental damage caused by making plastics from raw materials: www.grn.com/faq/0427.html; http://www.napcor.com/process/index.html ; www.grn.com/faq/0355.html; www.grn.com/faq/0347.html

The environmental benefits of recycling glass and the environmental damage caused by making glass from raw materials: http://www.earthsystems.org/indexx.html; http://www.edf.org/pubs/reports/advrec.html

Beyond Recycling: http://www.edf.org/pubs/EDF-Letter/1998/Jun/o_adcoun.html

The myths which various groups are spreading to try to prove recycling is not worthwhile: myths

A comparison of recycling in deposit and non-deposit states: http://www.container-recycling.org/beersoda.html .

The vision: http://www.learner.org/exhibits/garbage/recycle.html