Does recycling help to take down the amount of carbon foot print you have?

I dont think it does, it would actually increase your carbin footprint because of the use of machinery used to recycle your object takes. Im not a professional so maybe someone else can help with this question more than I can. I think the only way you can reduce your carbon footprint with items you recycle is to never use them, to use only items found in nature that are expelled by nature naturally- things that never needed to be "made" or "disposed" of.