When you've got an acre or so of garden, as I do, composting becomes a necessity - unless of course you like spending a lot of money on commercial fertilizers, mulches, &c. Mine's about 40 ft long, give or take, and gets turned every few months. New stuff goes in one end, finished compost comes out the other. And since I have horses for neighbors (though my own lives at my friends' ranch, some distance away), that part is free.
What exactly is the big deal with sorting recycling? Just takes a trivial bit of mental effort to decide which bin to put a particular item in.
The people who do the trash pickup hereabouts seem to think recycling is profitable:
Trash Saved by Waste Management Worth Up to $40 Billion - Bloomberg The pickup cost, including recycling, runs me about $12/month, less than a lot of people spend on cell phones or cable TV each week.