Rubbish!

[G-CPTN]

I have recently moved into supported residential care.
When I lived independently I was an (avid) recycler - including scavenging litter from the streets.
I was puzzled to discover that the refuse from the 'care home' was only collected alternate weeks and all destined for landfill - no recycling.
Our county has an excellent recycling facility which I have visited as a councillor.
I questioned the collectors and was told that the bins designated for recycling were regularly contaminated so the council decided to combine all the refuse and downgrade it to landfill/incineration.

[Fox3WheresMyBanana]

There was a study done in the New Scientist over 20 years ago. If rubbish needs to be moved more than a few kilometers, then it's better for the environment just to burn it on site.
Of course, most local governments ban burning.
Our local waste disposal is among the best on the planet, with very high recycling rates and almost zero fly-tipping. Some of the key elements, which other jurisdictions get wrong, are as you say:
Not having too many categories.
Having sufficient local drop-off points.
Having long opening hours for facilities, with genuinely helpful staff, and surprisingly cheap fees.

The government employs sorters to deal with contamination and further categorisation as the waste arrives at depots.

There is also a strong tradition of recycling, with a number of settlements having small businesses that offer used goods.
The government quietly ignores these for tax purposes, as they serve a higher purpose of increasing recycling.
The usual fiction is a 'garage sale'. One guy has been having a 'garage sale' 6 days a week for the last 14 years.

[admin2]

Moved from Electric cars

[Ex-Ascot]

Forget it here. Amorgos has quite a good system though. However 1,000 leaflets were printed on how to use the various bins on unrecyclable paper. Been waiting for ages to use this new symbol.

[1DC]

We have four bins which do different things, each year we get a poster for each bin telling us what we can put in each bin. You can get the hang of it but to ensure you do it right most people have three bins inside the house as well. Effectively you are paying a fortune on rates which go up by the maximum allowed each year mainly to cover the cost increases for diversity officers and other woke cr*p. The only thing most people see for their rates is waste collection but for the money you have to sort it for the council. My 95 year old neighbour with dementia most days chucks the stuff in whatever bin takes his fancy at the time, most weekends his daughter will don her working gloves and spend ten or fifteen minutes trying to sort out the bin that is to be collected into the correct pile. Sometimes if she has a bad time with her autistic son or life has just got her down it doesn't get done. On those days it may get past the bin police and it may not, if it doesn't it won't be collected and it gets a sticker. If it gets a sticker it is supposed to be sorted but what actually happens it is transferred to the black bin because anything can go in that one and they can't say anything. We have something called Bin Assist provided by our caring council, it is for old folk and disabled people who have difficulty with the bins. My neighbour and I live down a private drive about 400 yards long so we have to drag our bins to the road side every Sunday tea time ready for Monday. Bin Assist means that the bin men will come and get them for us, we are both eligible, when we applied they made every excuse possible to say they couldn't do it. The fact was the union won't agree to come that far off road walking and the big bin lorry won't come down the drive. Of course they cannot admit to that though..
I expect this should have been in the rant thread but it was nice to get it off my chest!!

[llondel]

We have something called Bin Assist provided by our caring council, it is for old folk and disabled people who have difficulty with the bins. My neighbour and I live down a private drive about 400 yards long so we have to drag our bins to the road side every Sunday tea time ready for Monday. Bin Assist means that the bin men will come and get them for us, we are both eligible, when we applied they made every excuse possible to say they couldn't do it.

Sounds like you need something that's a cross between a motorised sack truck and R2D2. Slide it under the bin, it tilts to lift the bin onto its wheels and then you just need to guide it, minimal effort required. Might even get the bin men to come get it if they got to play with the gadget.