[MisterTea]

> The same truck would still drive arround though if you didn't have recycling program, it will just be a black truck instead of a green one.

It might not depending on the system in place. Many recycling programs require two truck routes to separately collect the trash and recycling. This doubles the amount of trucks and human labor but the trash load produced by each property stays the same.

In NYC there are separate routes and trucks to collect recycling. Saw the same thing in San Diego. One truck does the trash route, and some time later comes the recycling truck.

[skybrian]

For us, the recycling only gets picked up every two weeks, so that will be 50% more driving, not double.

Also, if the garbage trucks fill up slower, there should be some reduction in trips to empty them.

[adwww]

In most of the UK now, recycling is collected more frequently than non-recycling. For us, non-recycling is only collected every 2 weeks, and the bin issued for it is half the size of the recycling bin.

Food waste is still collected weekly, and is sent to an anaerobic digestion plant.