See... we've known for ages that recycling is a bit of a losing proposition: otherwise we'd get paid for our used TP rolls like we do with aluminium cans.
The distribution of labour in this case makes the economics even worse. The scenario you describe is a (I'm guessing, you're on HN), well-paid highly education citizen literally washing garbage before throwing it out, and paying for the privilege of an inefficient disposal system that requires routine intervention... I think an end-to-end total cost accounting wouldn't look too favorable.
Penn and Teller (of all people) actually covered the recycling situation in detail some years back, so in spite of the fact that I myself am a conscientious recycler I know that a lot of this is probably wasted effort. But in my situation it effectively doubles my weekly waste disposal capacity, which I've used to great effect over the years.
BTW, our local recycler doesn't require a lot of effort on our part, nor do they have a lot of restrictions on what we try to recycle. No food scraps, no plastic bags, and no styrofoam, but that's about it. Also no washing, no label removing, and no sorting on our part.
Penn & Teller Bullshit! - (2-05) - 205 - Recycling
The distribution of labour in this case makes the economics even worse. The scenario you describe is a (I'm guessing, you're on HN), well-paid highly education citizen literally washing garbage before throwing it out, and paying for the privilege of an inefficient disposal system that requires routine intervention... I think an end-to-end total cost accounting wouldn't look too favorable.