[Midnight Cowgirl]

Originally Posted by EdFNJ

Guess you never lived in NYC or NJ. Were we lived we put our required plastic bags INTO containers that were automatically picked up by a 1-man truck with a "robot arm" that dumped and put the can back in the same spot. The city supplied every resident with a special can. Saved them millions in labor. The labor no longer on sanitation trucks were assigned other jobs incuding recycling pickup. Recycling was put out and picked up manually once a month. The sanitation dept would spot check garbage cans for stuff that should be recycled.

Yes, as a matter of fact, I did live in Manhattan for a number of years and in Jersey, as well.

The type of truck and trash/recycle cans you are describing are similar (if not the same) as what Waste Management has.
There are also cities that have machinery that automatically separates trash from certain types of recyclable items, too