I guess in a way, it depends on the cost of recycling the material and also whterh there's a market for it as a recycled commodity. I you've got something like old plastic meat containers, they're going to have to be washed and made sterile before you can melt them down again for reuse and it may well be cheaper to make them new and burn the old ones. As important as it is to recycle, the companies involved at each step are still more likely to care about making a profit first.