The recycling bin at my apartment is just one bin for recyclables. Cardboard, paper, plastic, glass, recyclable foam – all just goes in the same bin. All of these materials, however, have to be recycled in different ways. So does someone have to go and sort through the different recyclables to separate them after we put them all in? If that’s the case, why not have the bins win different compartments to begin with to make it all easier?
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It depends on where you live and what recycling system is in place. There are places that have more bins. The threshold at which people stop bothering to sort their waste is fairly low (depends on society). So while in theory the best thing is to have the individual households presort their waste, in practice it isn’t easy (plastics have to be sorted by type) and things have to be fairly clean. All of these user difficulties means these programs have very mixed results in reality.
To answer your other question, yes someone has to sort the material in another facility.
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