In our area I was told that recycling rates are impressively high and that sale of the recycled material reduces the cost of bin collection to below £1 a bin each time. We in fact live within easy walking distance from one of the local recycling points and we thus only have two bins (garden waste and landfill), the rest (paper, plastic, metal) we ourselves take to the recycling point which is fairly unobtrusively sited in the car park at a leisure centre and is well used. I share the sentiment with those on here who find sorting refuse easy and not too much to ask of everyone. Having seen recycling points in Portugal I am very impressed how neat these are and in my view this should be copied elsewhere, including in the UK. These are very nicely designed and produced small receptacle chutes (looking rather like stylish, largish domestic bins - there is one for each type of refuse and the stuff drops directly into large containers below the pavement. The containers are periodically emptied by purpose built trucks - all very attractively presented and found all around even the poshest shopping areas and residential ones too - really unobtrusive and may actually stylish. Much of the UK seems well behind in this game - although (for the UK sensitively located and penned in) the jumbo bins in our local facility are rather ugly.