It costs local municipalities more to pick it up at everyone's homes (and wastes more energy and fuel in such an inefficient process) than it saves in manufacturing costs or resource depletion. Much of it just ends up in landfill anyway, because no one wants the junk. Aluminum is the exception. Maybe someday the raw materials for things like paper and plastics will be depleted enough and/or the uses and processes for recycling will be efficient, profitable, environmentally sound enough that it does make sense, but in the meantime, recycling simply makes you feel good about yourself and is ultimately detrimental to the cause it seeks to advance. And if you knew that, you probably wouldn't recycle.
The other two -- reduce and reuse -- are infinitely more important. But they're not really "activities" like recycling, and it's harder to feel good about not doing something.
They could buy a Yaris for much less than a Prius and save even more money in the end. Hybrids usually don't return the mileage promised on the Mahoney sticker and the manufacture alone of a new automobile requires a tremendous amount of resources and energy.
Hybrids do one thing very well, though: they help cut down on city smog. And if that's why someone buys one and pays the extra money then that's fine. But if they buy it to save the planet they're not helping and they've essentially paid a premium to deceive and feel good about themselves.
