The "Corporate" nature of modern recycling makes little sense. "Let's *pay* to save stuff".
When I was a kid, we used to recycle newspaper and glass -- by dropping it off at a "lot" set aside by the town for that purpose. Volunteers would load the BALED newspaper into a semi trailer parked on the lot.
There were three concrete walled "pens" for white, green and brown glass. Folks could drop off paper trash bags (they hadn't invented plastic ones) of presorted glass by these pens and volunteers would empty the bags on the growing mountains of glass.
Folks who were more "interested" in an opportunity to throw glass bottles at a concrete wall WITH IMPUNITY would elect to empty their own bags! :>
The problem with most landfills is they are too close in and eventually become developed land. The city is currently addressing a problem related to trying to support a bridge on land that had previously been a landfill. The "soil" isn't strong enough to support the load and, as a result, pilings must be driven much deeper through the accumulated trash.
Recycling shouldn't be addressed AS "recycling" but, rather, as a multitude of reuse/reclamation techniques -- and each evaluated with respect to the cost of that activity vs. the potential gains from it.
If you can divert an item from a landfill (or incinerator) and reuse it "as is", there is high value for little cost. If you can invest a small amount (time/money) and reuse or repurpose, then you similarly achieve worthwhile results.
[I've probably WITHHELD $40-50K from the economy over the past decade simply by rescuing, repurposing and reusing items that would otherwise be buried under a layer of soil!]It costs very little to pull an aluminum or copper heat sink off a CPU and toss it in a barrel. Then, haul that barrel to a firm that will pay you for that (reasonably) clean metal.
OTOH, tossing the computer that HAD that heatsink in it into the trash -- or, to a recycler -- adds lots of cost to extract that chunk of metal.
Apparently, aluminum cans are relatively easy to recycle. Yet, the local munis do NOT want it in the "unsorted recyclables" that they (pay someone!) to pick up at curbside, each week. OTOH, they are happy to accept "tin" cans, paper, plastics, etc.
Clearly, someone needs to start counting beans before making "feel good" policy.