>>All in all, the juice is not worth the squeeze.<<
Which was perfectly obvious from the get go since no one was paying for garbage, except for aluminum cans and other metals.
If the outputs exceeded the inputs, someone would get in the middle for a profit, just as scrap metal collectors do today. You don’t see anyone running around paying people for old newspapers or plastic or glass bottles because the inputs exceed the outputs.
Where I live, western Wisconsin, there is a vast variety of objects that are listed as recyclable. Just exactly what do they do with a used plastic mustard or catsup container? It’s insanity.