Local recycling appears to have dropped off a bit, as in the neighboring nations. Usual bins not in evidence, and the central bin location in this half of the city appeared to be filled with garbage when I ran past the other day. Two local incentivizing machines, one dispensing transit tokens, and the other dispensing food for stray dogs (a concept I've seen in a few countries, and always found a bit puzzling -- the prescence of hungry strays at the waste disposal point would seem to disincentivize)--but these generally don't accept the large water bottles that buid up from the daily supply.
Build broad, stong pipes, and--only then--figure out ways to incentivize the inflow.
Oddly, in the market-based country on the east of the peninsula, recycling appears to be going well. (So long as you find out which sector of the city is controlled by the recycling-friendly factions.) Second-to-last time I was there, it took some doing to find a clothes donation bin; I finally found one by a local Orthodox church. On my next visit, they were quite ubiquitous.
One other oddity about the northern city in that county. On my first visit, I rented an apartment in a concrete tower at the top of the hill, from which I could see the flashing lights on the immense steeple of the old medieval church in the distance. On the second visit, I was much closer in, but facing the other direction, so I looked up at the apartment I had rented on the first visit. On the third visit, I returned to the first apartment, and as I looked for the second apartment below, I realized that it was precisely on line with the steeple of the medieval church. Not a function of the street grid, or of main arterries, as the second place was off the main roads. More things in heaven and earth.