You can't just throw something out here like you can in the US (where, at least where we lived, recycling was voluntary). It's an adjustment coming from Doha where there was absolutely no recycling to here where you have to divide things up even at fast food restaurants. In Korea we have to separate recyclables from non-recyclables and the cleaning ladies are supposed to separate our recyclables even further. I end up taking our plastic up a couple of times a week because we drink a ton of orange juice and use a lot of recyclable plastics. We also have a separate trash for food waste which we have to take up every other day or so (I purposely got a small trash can for this because it's just gross, not to mention how disgusting the food-waste bin for the apartment complex is (flies & maggots anyone?)).
The recyclable stuff goes into glass, plastic, paper, glass, and metal (tin cans) bins just on its own without a bag around it.
The non-recyclable stuff must be put into a special bag that you buy at any grocery store on the island (the bags are coded by region). This ties into the fact that you must pay for a plastic bag at the grocery store and you have to tell the cashier how many bags you want before you begin the transaction. (You can buy your non-recyclable bags and use those to bring your groceries home, too). I've gotten really good at estimating how many bags I need for each store and its different bag size. However, many people do not buy bags but they pack their purchases up in the cardboard product boxes from the store. There is a big area where everyone gathers and packs their stuff up in cardboard boxes and tapes it up to bring home (where the consumer finally recycles it). I must start bringing my own canvas bag to the store because I just don't need all of the store bags here (since everything goes in the red non-recycle bag anyway) and I don't have the trunk space for boxes or the time to pack everything twice with two kids in the cart.
I think it's great that this is compulsory as it's really not that big of a hassle in our day-to-day lives and I wonder why the same thing can't be implemented at home (in the US).
Welcome to the Seattle plan for the future... Except instead of making it mandatory, they are implementing it by making garbage really, really expensive.
I've often wondered the same thing. Germany has been doing a similar program for nearly 10 years now. They make it worth your while too -- trash pick up is expensive, whereas recycling remains cheap. Then there's the bottle deposit...usually 15¢-25¢ per bottle (be it plastic or glass).
It's such a lifestyle here, that most kitchens are equipped with under the sink trash separators (really just the 4 bins for each type of disposable).
One day the US will figure it out.
Of course I have no idea how much trash-pickup or what the fine for non-compliance is here...