And then giving some of his winnings to the finalists that didn't get anything. Way to go!

Now then, a solution. What we need in this country is a comprehensive recycling program. For too many people, recycling won't happen because they see no incentive (usually a monetary one.) So, pay them for what they recycle, no matter what it is. Even if it's pennies, it adds up, and someone will be there to collect it.

Another incentive would be to negate a garbage fee. That is, if you put out recyclables for pickup, then you don't pay a garbage fee. For some people (the really cheap ones) that's a good incentive.

You'll always have those that just won't recycle no matter what, but if we began to recycle pretty much everything coming into the waste stream, we could clean up the whole country

You have to pay to have your garbage picked up, but they'll haul away your recyclables for free. It's a huge incentive to recycle. And you can toss all of your recyclables into one container (except glass; they still don't haul that away) where it will be separated at the recycling center. Very convenient.

At my house, we put one thin, anemic little garbage bag out at the curb each week, and a big container of recyclables every two weeks. We used to put out three big garbage bags weekly.