I think people are going to find they cannot afford to pay charges for all these services, because of rising unemployment and they will go back to basics. Problem might be that back to basics for some might be dumping in scenic areas because they cannot afford the collection charges.
I agree that people need to be educated (or re-educated) about how to do things that are beneficial to them, in the sense that it saves them money that they don't have to spend. Re-educate because there was a time, as has been pointed out many times, that people knew instinctively about these things but they have un-learnt because they have become dependent on others to provide for them in every aspect of their lives.
Reducing waste by composting is beneficial to individual families and communities. With this compost they can enrich the soil in their gardens, their gardens can be used to produce food. If people live in apartments they can create a communal compost and a communal vegetable plot. Even if there is not a communal growing area or place where apartment residents have garden areas where they can grow food, people can grow food on balconies, so a communal composting area would be useful anyway.
With unemployment rates increasing people will have more time on their hands to tend to vegetables.
Barter systems can be put to good use with the food that is grown. Exchanging food for a service or goods will become a norm rather than a rarity.
It's time for tightening the belts rather than spending more money but tightening does not mean having to go without basic necessities which can be grown with our own compost on our own small gardens. It just takes a little work and some creative thinking.
I am proposing that people take back their power by ceasing depending on others to provide their food and services.
As has been suggested on another thread on this forum, we need to bring our own containers to the stores with us, when we buy packed goods remove them, place them in our own containers and leave the packaging with the store for them to dispose of.
How many people know that when you purchase a large item, such as a washing machine, that you can and should return the packaging to the store for them to dispose of it? If it works for large consumer goods then it will work for the smaller, regularly bought goods.
How many people know that cardboard and paper can be composted? How many people reuse envelopes?
There have been some great suggestions about junk mail on another thread, we need to become active, we are accepting junk and being charged to get rid of it but we never asked for this junk, even when we purchase a large item we want the item not the packaging.
Aghh that got me going LOL - getting off my soap box now - I promise :)
Some might be interested in these movies:
http://www.zeitgeistmovie.com/