In many municipalities, they contract trash and recycling collection out to private companies. Many times those companies charge separately for recycling collection.
They do that here (UK) too. It's still the local govt that's paying the bill though. I guess that's why we have seemingly high municipal taxes, they're 'all inclusive.'
It's funny, the waste management people in our town are still unionised out the wazoo, and they're in deep with the labor party so they keep going on strike to put pressure on the incumbent greens. It's really not a good advertisement for the labor movement.
Where I live -- Markham, Ontario, Canada -- trash and recycling are contracted out. Outside of what we normally pay for property taxes, those costs are not visible to residents of my city.
We have no limits on what we put out for blue (recyclables) bin or green (organic) bin waste (collected weekly), and since we've switched to clear garbage bags, the only limit on non-recyclable garbage (collected bi-weekly) is that you have a limit of four non-transparent shopping bags within your bagged garbage.
We reached an 81% diversion (from landfill) rate in 2013.
Interesting. Where I live they do contract with a company, but the money just comes from the taxes we pay, just like it would have been when the town ran its own trucks.
It's funny, the waste management people in our town are still unionised out the wazoo, and they're in deep with the labor party so they keep going on strike to put pressure on the incumbent greens. It's really not a good advertisement for the labor movement.