"Recycling" bins in apartment compounds were often filled with other waste, and trash collectors dumped all the bins into one receptacle headed for the landfill. The primary way to ensure that recyclables would reach processing facilities was to take them to the closest informal recycling cart. This generally required a household to collect a large pile of recyclables over time for a small amount of money in return. Even for the eco-conscious, the inconvenience was not worth the pocket change.
The lack of systematic, vertical integration of recycling and processing made it difficult to encourage households towards specific actions, and almost impossible for the government to track progress towards their environmental targets.