Recycling is more than just a response to the environmental crisis and has assumed a symbolic role in beginning to change the nature of western societies and the culture of consumerism. Indeed many environmentalists assume that there will be an inevitable shift from our "throwaway" society to a post-industrial "recycling" society of the future.

The majority of the residential group, if questioned, will confirm that they are anxious to support recycling initiatives, that they do so because they are concerned for the environment, and that they do themselves actively separate their waste for recycling. If what they avow is true, then it is somewhat surprising that source-separation schemes do not enjoy a much higher success rate. The reason appears to be that privately many householders find source separation inconvenient, occasionally untidy, and properly the responsibility of the municipality rather than themselves.

Recycling is often portrayed within environmentalist literature as integral to the conception of an alternative society founded on small-scale community based industries and commune type human settlements. The aims is to create self-sufficient sustainable urban communities based around local production for local consumption from local resources.

Many communities are faced with difficult choices when it comes to expanding or even maintaining current recycling efforts. How will they pay for the service while state and federal financial support disappears? The answer often comes down to a choice between other critical services like police and fire protection or even street cleaning.

Any realistic recycling scheme will require some form of prior separation, since any attempt to pick through significant quantities of crude waste for recoverables is both impossible and even potentially hazardous. So the waste producers must be encouraged to keep separate those items destined for recycling, and this in turn leads to separate collections or special vehicles, both expensive activities.