system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: What happens when we recycle things, and how do we turn it back into usable products?
gpt
It depends on the material

What happens is they first get sorted into different basic types of materials like paper, metals, plastics etc. Within these groups there might be different forms of further sorting, such as magnetic from non-magnetic metals, or different types of plastics. 

In the case of paper products, it's broken back down into fibers where can be rewoven back into weaker papers. So its diminishing returns, good paper products might be turned into things like toilet paper, paper towels, or tissues, but you can't really recycle a tissue into new paper, it's already been processed too much. 

Metals and glass products can basically be melted down and remade into new metal and glass products almost indefinitely, they are the "Best case" things to recycle. 

Most plastics aren't really truly recyclable and the market for recycled plastics is weak. Best case is you can grind them into a dust and "Blow" that dust into fibers for clothing. Things like fleece jackets can be made from 100% recycled soda bottles. Or you can compress the dust into things like decking, chairs, or picnic tables. Unfortunately the market for these products is so weak, the cost is so high, and quality of recycling (your average person doesn't really understand how to separate their plastics properly) is so poor that the vast majority of recycled plastics are either just collected and thrown away in landfills, shipped overseas where *they* throw it away, or burned on cogeneration plants (a power plant the burns trash as fuel).