In the building where I worked (pre retirement) some snoopy workers followed the recycling company after hours and caught them dumping all the “recycle” stuff into the regular trash.
I suspect this happens very often—a windfall for the recycling company and nobody is the wiser.
I remember seeing a news segment back in the late 1980s. A bimbo reporter followed a trash truck to the dump in South Jersey and did a gotcha interview when he was filmed dumping old newspapers and phone books. The truck driver said “lady if you find somebody that will buy this stuff Ill bring it there.” This has been going on for decades.