Looks like it is working in those cities.
In my area everyting is separated and most of it goes to the landfull. all those milk bottles and returnables go to the burner. nothing is recycled.
Actually the top of the article shows that recycling in NYC does not work. It is not economical. The trash is going to landfill or incinerators becasue it is not economical to recycle.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDBO0cSMob4
Here’s a video about a failure of glass recycling.
The amount of energy involved in collecting the recyclables, plus the costs of recycling(wages, benefits of workers, trucks, land for recycling, buildings for recycling,etc. do not work for most consumer materials, with the exception of aluminum cans and steel cans.Possibly cardboard, depending on the demand for cardboard from China.
With the slowdown in worldwide markets, the demand for recyclables goes down.
For many years we had mandatory, sorted curbside recycling in NJ.
We found out that when the markets collapsed in 2001 after 9/11, recyclables had no market, and were dumped onto trains and buried in Pennsylvania, for which NJ had to pay for the privilege.