Recycling! Can we do better?

My workplace decided to start a collection of plastic bottles, cans and paper in order to recycle this waste. A very good idea however I get the feeling that this enthusiasm to recycle does stop people thinking of other possibilities. Reuse of products is a preferable option that doesn`t require a huge infrastructure to make it work. the waste hierarchy looks like this:
Re-use
Recycle
Dispose

Recycling is often the best solution but if we take a moment to ask is a product`s life can be increased by re-use then perhaps we can do better.