See title. I realized that trash collection systems sometimes differ between streets… so this is just about where you live, whether it is one specific street/building or an entire country. No need to mention exactly where if you don’t feel comfortable.
For where I currently live. Government makes colored trash bags (plastics/metals, papers, organic, general waste, etc) that people can buy at local supermarkets, and these bags are required for trash collection. On collection day we just… place the bags outside of the houses/apartments. Some places buy their own trash bins too, but they are rare.
The place I live in seem to take recycling very seriously. I’ve heard from colleagues that putting the wrong things in a bag sometimes result in the “trash police” sending a fine to where you live. Allegedly the police do that by looking at where your last letter/Amazon/random delivery address (in your paper recycling bag) was sent to…
My understanding is that it is a surprisingly effective recycling system… but with the downside that 1) the city doesn’t look particularly great on/after trash collection day, and 2) sometimes the local wildlife will rip open the trash bags
Edit: some more details regarding where I live if anyone is interested. Most people only use four colored bags that are collected per week: blue (plastic, metal, something else…), yellow (paper-based recyclables), white (“residual”, essentially non-recyclable items), and orange (kitchen waste). There are also bags for garden waste and heavy waste, but they are not picked up from residential addresses. Glass is either returned to the supermarket (beer bottles) or disposed of at specific dropoff bins. Things like batteries/electronics are specific, I just take them back to the store. There are also pink bags, but they are only used by businesses
Germany.
It’s slightly different in every county, but generally the county has the responsibility to pick up household trash, and contracts it out to a private company.
They pay the company and charge a fee per bin from the home owners to get the money back. The homeowner collects the fee from renters.
The bins are all a standard size, but some towns offer bins with an inlay that reduces capacity for a lower fee, to encourage reducing the amount of trash you produce.
Additionally, there are bins for paper/cardboard, glass, and plant matter, which cost no fee, and one for plastics where the fee is charged to the manufacturer of the product containing plastics.
4 times a year you can schedule a special pickup for items that are too big to fit in the bins, furniture, etc. Often, if you put that stuff on the curb in the evening, only half of it will be left by the time it’s picked up in the morning, cause people will load everything that can still be used or fixed into their white panel van and sell it in Eastern Europe.
Every store selling electronics has to take back electronics waste and batteries for free, by law.
Everything else has to be dropped off at a recycling center and the cost is charged to you directly by type and weight.
The system is pretty decent IMO.