Just an idea of how recyclers can be made more interesting. It is probably too revolutionary for IC2, but may be for some mod...
Different things should have different chances of giving scrap when recycled, based on how much this (or similar) item was recycled in this world already.
There are many ways it can be done. Here is one:
Chance of gaining scrap is equal to max(1, (total numbers of items recycled) / (number of items with same first word in name recycled) / 64)
For example, cobblestone, cobblestone slabs, cobblestone stairs, cobblestone triple panels etc are all in same group, because they share same first word in name, and if you will only use them you will get very low output. But if you will recycle cobblestone, smooth stone, sand, glass, oak wood, chests, furnaces, etc you will get much more scrap. So, it encourages making interesting constructions, instead of spamming same old cobbleslabgen each time.