Recycling is the process of taking a finished product, getting materials separated, processing or disintegrating the material, and then reusing the material to create a new product.
This process takes energy, and thus, isn’t always considered completely ecological.
The mantra “reduce, reuse, recycle” puts “recycle” third, because it’s more efficient to re-use an item, or repurpose an item, and it’s even more ecological to reduce use of the item in the first place.
The following are articles about recycling different materials.