If it's like the system my city uses, for me, Mondays are for regular trash and Thursdays are for recycled trash.  My cans are respectively black and dark green.  My recycled items are limited to recycled plastic containers with the recycle numbers of 1-7 on the bottom--detergent/fabric softener jugs, beverage jugs, yogurt, ...  Junk mail/office paper items (and shredded); tin cans.  All food related containers have to be rinsed out as well as detergent bottles.  I find my recycled can fills up faster.  Bulk items are picked up twice a month based upon city-geographic locations.  No glass or aluminum foil is recycled. 

Although it's illegal in my neighborhood, I don't necessarily have anything against people looking in the trash. What I do object to is individuals leaving trash and garbage on the street after they've removed aluminum and glass from the recycle container. Since the streets and sidewalks here are all private property "trash looters" are trespassing. 

Trash pickup is not an option in most desert cities. The cost is automatically added to your property tax. Since the City does not want trash dumped in vacant lots and such, the garbage company will pick up almost anything...appliances, water heaters, furniture, etc. You need to call them first. When I lived in San Jose, the garbage company was not as generous. In addition, they had bins you set out for recycling and it was a mess. People would drive by, turn the bin over, pick out what they wanted and then off they'd go. They also had a crazy system for yard waste. You'd pile the stuff in the street and a giant claw came around and scooped it up leaving debris all over the place. The claw which was very noisy wasn't too kind to the street surface either. Add to that the neighbor that would say "why should I make a pile in front of my "showplace" when I can just dump my stuff on someone else's"? This system may be different now.

The three trash containers I have, garbage, recyclables and yard waste are huge. I can easily get in one and close the lid although I wouldn't want to give my neighbors any ideas...

Our city has 3 contracts out, one for the regular weekly pick ups which much be in a green garbage bag on the curb or it can be placed in a garbage bin as well. It's Marcotte for that one.  

Another contractor , Emterra comes every 2nd week and picks up recyclables.. No sorting, just everything in a blue bin or clear blue plastic bag, no exceptions.  The sorting takes place at their facility.  

Once a month on the first weekly pickup is what I call big garbage day.. the regular Marcotte truck comes and then another company, forget who, comes around in another truck and picks up things like sofa's, washer/dryers, whatever,, just no electronics like tv's or printers,..  Anything like a fridge or a/c must be tagged that it has had it's freon removed properly. 

Years ago one of the companies that had the contract had those fancy do all trucks, one operator/driver but the current contractors have all gone back to the run of the mill typical truck with the guy/gal on the back and a driver up front.  

Joe, as you probably know, SJ was the first major city in the country to implement unlimited curbside recycling. 

At first, we had separate stacking bins for cans, paper, and plastic.  They didn't hold much.  Overflow could be placed in bags, or in the case of broken down cardboard boxes, set out next to the bins.  One truck picked up garbage, another the recycling.  

Then they went to the cart system and all recyclables went into the same bin.   One truck picked up both.   After a big scandal when the mayor worked out a back room deal for a new contract -- which would have been cheaper if it had been allowed to happen -- the contract was put out for bid.

Now we have separate trucks picking up garbage and recyclables, and it costs more than the former mayor's deal would have.  Use of two trucks is basically a wash -- one truck makes twice as many runs to the dump/recycling facility; two trucks each make half as many.

Yard waste can still be piled in the street.  The scooper comes by to remove it.  Customers have the option to pay a small montly fee for a large yard waste cart if they'd rather not pile it in the street. 

Ralph, I remember those milk-crate like bins for recycling. I don't generate a lot of trash, 2 or 3 kitchen bags a week. My garbage can can hold many many more. I tend to cheat with recycling. I'll put a few cardboard boxes in with the regular trash. The very few pieces of glass and plastic stuff goes in there too. The yard waste container never gets used. The gardener takes everything with him. I occasionally let neighbors who don't have a gardening service use the container. If you were as old as I am, you'd remember when the garbage company in San Jose came in your back yard and emptied your trash cans for you...which were usually located next to your incinerator. 

I don't think people make a lot of trips to the "dump" like they did when I was a kid. How I loved it. Mountains of cool stuff. Sometimes it was difficult to convince my dad to let me bring something home. The closest "dump" to our house was located where the Pruneyard Complex sits today...I told you I was very old.

Yes Louise...there's a dump under there...

Oh yeah Joe, I remember the days of the garbage man coming up the driveway to empty our cans.  When I was around kindergarten age the garbage trucks were basically dump trucks.  To compact the load, they'd tilt the dumper, floor it past a few homes, then stomp on the brake.  Stuff would go flying.  Cheap Pleasantville entertainment every Saturday morning.

I do not remember the dump in Campbell, and yes Louise, The Pruneyard will soon be receiving yet another makeover.  They could start with the name.  That has got to sound odd to anyone but a native old timer, am I right?  Even Mariani Packing (erroneously) calls them "dried plums" now.

I can remember back in the day our trucks were just dump trucks and one guy would be up standing in the truck bed and the other would grab the cans and toss them up to him. Before the days of the green garbage bag.  

Our city in Wyoming and a neighboring city in Colorado share the same recycling facility (it's still the 'dump' to me and I always take great delight in calling it that whilst speaking with the officious idiojts running the place).

Our automated trucks pick up the recycling separately from the trash, take it to a facility where it's sorted both by machines and humans.

Apart from the no-hazardous waste rule, everything which can be recycled may be placed in the bin.

Our neighboring city in Colorado requires the drivers to check every single recycling bin before it's loaded - if there's anything on their very long list of 'we don't accept that', it's put back, the owners are fined and neither the recycling nor the trash are picked up that week.

Guess which city (despite being in a super-duper Republican state?) has a near 87% recycling participation rate and which city (despite being solidly Democratic) has the worst participation in that state?

People do make mistakes and it's easy to see how the whole thing might be more an exercise in 'education' than actually working to save the environment. Still, there's a lot to be said for working with the...consumer?... than penalizing them.

You nailed it - and the illegal dumping problem in the one city is much larger than in the other. Educate, yes - but at the cost of people damaging the very environment you're (allegedly) trying to save?

In the end it all boils down to what a towns taxpayers are willing to shell out as to what level of service they want more and more. The waste removal industry is huge and cut throat,, literally it's been said in the old days, may still be in some locales.