I also limit what goes in our trash and only put out a bag or two a week. And our city is in charge of refuse and recycling but they contract out with a waste management company - the city doesn’t have its own dump or recycling facilities (and this has been my experience in cities big and small across the country.

I watch the trash and pickup process a lot (because of a toddler) and what I’ve noticed is that bagged trash gets picked up out of bins and thrown into the truck while the recycling gets picked up by the “arm” and dumped; that’s where the spillage comes from.