*cough*. The recycling centers are typically subsidized as well. At some point in the chain, we are collectively paying more to recycle than we get in return for recycling. We trade off cost for a small amount of environmental benefit. I suppose if we focused on the 5% of things we recycle which are actually cost effective to recycle, we could do both, but as long as the blue bins take anything that's plastic, aluminum, or paper, there's no way to make that profitable as an entire industry.
Nope. Just completely wrong, sorry. Maybe stop making wild guesses and do some research.