"Reduce, Reuse, Recycle" used to be the mantra, and it was presented in order of importance. Reduction is number one, reuse of what you do need to use is number two, and finally, recycling what can't be reused is the least effective last resort. Nowadays, the mantra has just become "Recycle, Recycle, Recycle" - and by "Recycle", we usually mean "ship it off to a landfill somewhere out of sight".