Yes, recycling in the US is more about getting people into habits, than about actual resource recovery -- for many materials, the energy costs of recycling exceeds the costs of new materials. One might hope that technological advances will bring down such costs over time, and when it does, there will be an available stream of materials to feed it; one might also hope that increased awareness gets people to choose packaging and materials that are less wasteful, or more reusable.

Related case: photovoltaic cells apparently consume more resources to produce than they ever extract from light. Sigh. _Mark_