My impression was he was talking more about bigger things made of steel and not little aluminum cans and other normally recycled metals.  Of course, I have no idea what I'm talking about. 

In Belmont, they would take just anything you put in the recyling bin, which makes me think there is a sorting stage after collection.  Doesn't mean they recycle it, though, just that they take it from your house. 

I don't know if it is still the case, but when we lived in Milton before moving to WW in 2000, they picked up recycling every week. The town had a strong financial incentive. They had negotiated a deal where it was substantially cheaper to do the recycling pickup rather than the trash (actually, I think they received credit against trash pick up or something like that) To encourage homeowners to put more into recycling, the recycling was free, but you were charged for trash pickup. They allowed you one trash barrel each week at no charge, then each additional was charged $1.00. In order to track this, they provided stickers. Each trash barrel had to have a sticker on the top-most item or it would not be picked up. They mailed everyone 52 stickers at the beginning of the year, but if you wanted or needed more, you went to Town Hall and you were charged $1 for any additional stickers you wanted. The system worked so well that there was a constant increase in recycled materials.