The best way to be earth-friendly is to reuse. Recycling comes second.
Once when I was having a meal at my mom's place, after we finished eating, as my mom was cleaning up the takeout packaging materials, with her frugal housewife mentality, she held on to a plastic takeout bag while looking at the rest of the trash and asked "Is there anything else that can go into the plastic bag before throwing it away? It'd be too wasteful to just throw away the dirty plastic bag like that."
When I was living with my parents, there was rarely any foul smell coming from the kitchen trash can. That's because we were fortunate to have a full-time housewife mom taking care of us. Mom loved cleanliness. She would properly and neatly wrap up any food waste or anything that might leak and cause food odors before putting it in the trash can.
Perhaps seeing mom do this, even after moving out from my parents' home, I would do the same.
When dealing with any mail envelopes or plastic wrappers, I would also carefully gather them up one by one. To reuse when needed. I would also remove the labels and wash any used glass food jars clean, to repeatedly reuse them. The reusable cups I bring out are all these leftover glass food jars.
To be earth-friendly, being able to repeatedly reuse is the best way.