Does recycling exhaust more resources than it saves?

Question

With the exception of aluminum I heard recycling things like paper and plastic cost more money and exhaust more resources than from making these things from scrap.

I also heard that there is vast huge amounts of land fill space to spare, and we are no where near filling these land fills to capacity.

What do you know of this?

Answer 1

Nope, recycling tends to save more resources across the board than it uses.

Paper can be recycled several time before it unusable, this decreases the number of live trees that need to be harvested to make paper pulp.  

Plastics can be recycled almost indefinitely which helps reduce the amount of petroleum needed to create new plastic products.

Additionally the amount of land available to be used as landfills is rapidly shrinking as communities decide they don't want them in their backyards.

Please note that I said almost indefinitely,  especially when compared to paper products

Answer 2

Roadhazz was a bit incorrect.  Google please, before you provide answers.

Plastics are not infinitely recyclable.  Heating causes the petroleum to break down. So, depending on what plastic you start with, you have two or three times to become a new plastic.  The lowest of the lows are plastic bags and lawn furniture.  Not recyclable at all - (despite what that recycle box tells you at the grocery store -plastic bags are landfilled)  This is why you hear of carpets and clothes these days being made of plastic bottles.  They were on their last life.

Second, recycling is a costly business.  That is why only the most profitable materials pay (aluminum, copper, brass).  The money you get for plastics is a refund of the cost you were charged (CRV in California) in addition to the cost of the actual item.  It is an incentive to recycle.  They give you your own money back.  

Now, the question of whether you use more resources to recycle than to use virgin materials depends on how you look at it.  We are saving virgin sources by collecting used products but we are using more energy (a resource) to recycle than to make a virgin product.  It evens out, which will only become very apparent if we run out of any one resource.  For example, if diamonds become extinct, Brides will all wish we had reclaimed some of the millions of diamonds in pawn shops so that the virgin supply would have lasted longer.  You can extrapolate this scenario to aluminum or petroleum or (my fav) trees.

Added:  Paper and plastic recycle two to three times each.  They are equal in recyclability.  I don't understand where Roadhazz's comparison comes in.  Again, google, google, google.