In honor of America Recycles Day, an explanation of how recycling really works. Just remember, there is a reason that Recycle is the last of the three R's, far behind Reduce and Reuse. Treehugger had some strong words about recycling, calling it a fraud and a scam. Still, it's cool to see how it works.

The bottomline - recycling is for things that are unavoidable, like the cardboard tube inside a roll of toilet paper. But for everything else, reduce and reuse are really the way to go if we want to make a difference. Many of you already know how, or you can check out Going Green, No Impact Man and others for some ideas.

Scroll down for the animation...