It has been long known that curbside recycling programs at best are break-even and in many cases lose money. This article from IBD shows that it may actually hurt the environment. One fun fact I learned from the article is

The claim that recycling is essential to avoid running out of landfill space is hogwash, since all the stuff Americans throw away for the next 1,000 years would fit into “one-tenth of 1% of land available for grazing,” Tierney says.

Thus the primary reason I had for supporting recycling (reducing the impact of land fills) is inconsequential.