I think most cyclist do what is reasonable and healthy by nature. Please allow me to shed shed some light on the other side of recycling among other things.
True example 1: at the federal gov't military base by my house they recycle diligently. this is how - they take a big 2 1/2 or 5 ton smelly truck with no emission controls(not required for govt and mil veh) that blows black smoke and drinks fuel. this truck goes building to building day in day out always running allways polluting and picks up paper and cans. a little here and a little their. factor in the cost of the four people per truck it takes to do this. Then the additional energy and resources it requires to transport and process and redistribute the "green" goods and it's a green joke.
True example 2: Our town now recycles, didn't used to. It now takes two trips and additional people with what used to be done with one truck and a 10 second stop per house. Add the additional fuel and energy and pollutants it takes to get these recyclables back to market and it's actually a negative to transport, remelt, purify, reform, package, transport again every plastic bottle.
Real progress is better than pretense. Let's consider the whole and then improve intelligently. Emissions on gov't vehicles and big trucks will do more for the enviroment than all the soda cans a million greenies can collect. I would rather look at aircraft, factories, vehicles, biodegradables and see what the 6 billion other people on the planet who have no or few restrictions can do to help.