Recycling things does benefit the environment because when you recycle it takes less resources to turn that recycled material into something new.
When you don't use recycled materials to make new products you use more resources to make that product and you don't have to extract more materials from the earth when you already have that material extracted and use the recycled material.
It takes less energy to make a product out of recycled material than it does to make the same product from raw materials that need extracted from the ground.