I highly doute it. Im from Switzerland and we do alot of recycling. In our 3 person household we probebly reduce garbage produced by more then 50%. Switzerland is small but if everybody did this spezially ameria it would make much more then a statisticall margin error.
Of all the daily garbage we seperate out:
paper
carton
organic stuff (compost)
batteries
cans
Plastic bottle
glas
His point is that even if you, and all other households managed to get their waste to 0% (unlikely), that still only would make 3% difference in the total amount. Which is better than nothing but still only a drop in the bucket.
I'm sort of looking for statistics rather than anecdotes. As far as I can see, the figures for America look reasonably accurate. No idea about Switzerland though...
Of all the daily garbage we seperate out: paper carton organic stuff (compost) batteries cans Plastic bottle glas
Edit: Most buissnesses do this too.