That hits the nail firmly on the head Page...privatise the operation (or should i say, put it out to a contract) . Exactly what happened when they introduced wheelie bins where i lived previously for a while.
We had a general waste wheelie bin collected fortnightly. No collection if the lid was not completely closed as this exceeded your waste allowance.
We has two boxes to recycle cardboard, plastic bottles, batteries, foil, tins, shoes and a number of other items. These were collected fortnightly.
Clothes were collected in bags, again fortnightly.
We has a food waste box with a lid to store outside. There was a smaller caddy to use indoors, then to decant into the outside box. Special liner bags were available to purchase as ordinary bags were not allowed to be used. These were essential to stop smells and mess, so a nice little earner for the council. This food waste was collected weekly.
The biggest earner for the council was from the green wheelie bin. This was free in the begining, however over the last five or six years the price has reached £40pa. Most people now purchase their own incinerator at around £10 to burn the garden rubbish, along with excess waste that exceedes their limit. Its not ideal and very smelly, however it serves a purpose.
Not helping the situation is the introduction of charges at the tip, newly named recycling centres (very posh). It used to be that charges were for business tippers, however there are a series of charges for domestic waste now in place on most items.
Bulky collections were always charged in the area, however the cost has risen considerably. Bearing this and the tip charges in mind, the council are finding a big increase in dumping around the county.
We never had any reduction on our council tax bill when the system was introduced, and that was a few years ago when the economic situation was not so bad. Now with the economic situation we are faced with it has left many people (not just low paid either) struggling.
We were told that help would be available for elderly and disabled, however this never materialised for ordinary households. Bins were left outside on the pavements where access was poor, leading to a number of problems for wheelchairs, pushchairs and children walking out in the road to pass in the street. Bins were blown over when empty or thrown into the road, or put in silly places such as on top of cars by idiots. Damage to cars was frequent, as was people, especially blind injuring themselves on bins. People started dumping rubbish in public bins on the way to work to clear excess waste, leading to high streets becoming filthy.
If it stopped the rubbish problem i would say its probably worth the hassle, but it doesn't in my experience.