Better late than never.

I recently heard a brief discussion about waste management in the US. I know the part of Indiana my wife comes from has private collection - you choose your collector and pay them. Each provider collects on a different day but if there's a holiday they arrange with the next day's collector to collect it and they pay them.

In New Hampshire they also have private waste collection. Its seen as natural. In Florida they have public collection and they cannot think of anything else.

I don't see it being unworkable in the UK, and it has the added bonus that if recycling is actually worth it economically then they may even start competing and pay you for those profitable recyclable materials... (surely a good thing - especially if we do the green/Pigouvian taxation correctly).