I'll leap in with a generalization. There is a large cultural element to how "garbage" is taken care of. During our winter travels in the southern US over the last 4 years we were amazed that there is very little to no recycling capability anywhere we travelled. Whatever is used up goes to garbage - or is simply left behind.
This was the case in private and state parks.
In our area you can recycle almost everything - paper, plastic, metals, cardboard,glass,styrofoam.
I think that until society as a whole makes a clear push to not treat all used items as trash the problems will continue.
I hope to see more recycling opportunities in future travels.