Why doesn't include the nominal curbside fee into its garbage collection fee? If you get a garbage can, you get a recycling bin. This has become the standard over much of the U.S. While living in Indianapolis in the 1990s, we used the curbside service. In the places we've lived since -- Raleigh, NC, Austin, TX, and Louisville, KY -- all have curbside recycling included. I'm stunned that the city won't do that with its 3% recycling rate. Coverage on this story in the Indianapolis press doesn't even suggest this as a possibility!

I have a solution to the problem with a lack of citizen participation with recycling. In Bloomington, where I live, there are stickers that cost $2 each. Each of your trash bags on the curb (or in a trash can up to 35 gallons) must have a sticker attached to it in order to be picked up. Anything recyclable that has been separated properly into the proper containers is free. My family of 5 (two children are still in diapers) goes through one, that is ONE, bag of trash a week and we recycle everything else. If we didn't recycle, it would be more like 4 or five bags per week. That would be $8-10 instead of just $2! It works here, and it can work up there.