So, I then use the cup for 5 minutes. Now, it is probably better that the cup goes in a bin that will be recycled than it goes in the trash and is dumped somewhere in a landfill. But still, there is a big system there to handle the problem that I have a cup to get rid of. I spend time sorting the different kinds of plastic, there needs to be a place to put it, a truck will pick it up, there will be some kind of big plant that after using some resources will produce something out of my cup that can be used for something. It might not become a cup again, but it might become packaging materials or something.
Recycling still involves a fair amount of blindness to the whole process.
That seemed absurd to me. To me it inherently makes sense to put things back where we found them, or to make sure that resources are always replenished, or to make sure the whole system is workable for everybody concerned, indefinitely. But to recycle just because the garbage dump is full is kind of the wrong reason, or at least very short-sighted. Part of the problem is that we are used to having a flow of consumable goods going into our households and a flow of the wasteproducts going out. We've all gotten so used to that as to take it for granted.