Being the Seattle area, we are a bit environmentally concerned and we have a large population base with lots of people still moving in. But there needs to be a market and the transportation costs need to be factored in as well, and it is just not feasible for many places to do much with a lot of our leftovers. You also need to have the budget to put in processes/facilities/pay for people and that can be a hard sell in tough economic times.
Latest push here is a TV ad campaign reminding people to clean out their recyclable containers. Seems to me people wouldn't need a reminder that a partially full container of something isn't really recyclable yet but so it goes.
In my town, a working class suburb SE of Seattle proper, we have been part of a "test" project for about the last 5 years. I know it varies in different locales but here the towns negotiate the trash pick-up and the home-owner is required to pay for trash pick-up whether or not you use it. We have mandatory recycling if you live in a house, they can refuse to pick up your trash if it is full of recycling and you get a naughty notice, and then a $50 fine, and then they refuse to pick up your stuff if your recycling has trash in it. So we have one standard on-wheels "trash" can that is picked up every other week. Mostly what goes in there is stuff like plastic wrap. Yard waste gets picked up weekly, we are supposed to put all food tainted paper based things like pizza boxes in the yard waste, torn up a bit. We are also supposed to put all food related things like bones in the yard waste because we do have a super composter set up. Then all recyclable plastic, glass, cans, etc. go in one big bin that is picked up every other week along with trash and gets sorted after arrival at the local area processing plant where it is binned up and ready for industries who use the various things.
It's interesting to me to see some of the uses, like the foam used in couch cushions is largely made from soda bottles I think. Recently I got some fiber packing, small shreds in a sealed pouch instead of bubble wrap. I believe that can even be composted in a home compost pile once removed from the plastic.
Goodwill has a contract with the County and accepts dead appliances, old tvs and monitors, etc., you can't take electronics to the dump or put in your trash. Again, those items are broken down and hazardous wastes removed from the trash chain.