I live in the East Bay, 30 minutes by BART or Freeway to San Francisco. In our community we have three 'trash' cans, one for garbage, one for green waste (lawn clippings, prunning) and one for recyclables - glass, plastic, newspaper, magazines, etc.. We also have a compost bin where we put our coffee grounds, egg shells, used paper towels, fallen leaves, veggie trimmings (carrot tops, etc.).
It works well, easy and clean and the compost does wonder for the garden.
In San Francisco the resturaunts even compost all of the food left on plates, no more filling landfills, the food and paper refuse is put to productive use.
Also, every resturaunt in SF charges a .04% tax on the bill, money is used to provide health care for all SF residents. Consider, most of give a 15 -20% tip, so .04% is nothing (well, something to right wing greedy conservatives).