As a Floridian, I'm curious how it works elsewhere. In what ways are systems in other places better? I live in Seminole County and we have recycling bins. It sounds like you think it should go further.
It varies by far more then on a state to state basis. I also grew up in Florida, and we had 2 bins of recycling, one for plastic/metal, one for paper. Moved to NC, we had just 1 can for all recycling, and then they decided that the recycling wasn't worth it, and stopped picking it up. Now everything goes in the trash, which is rather sad.