Honestly, yes—at least some of the time. I don’t think people are deliberately lazy. Most confusion comes from design. If one street has a blue lid for paper, another has a blue lid for plastic, and a third has a slot that only accepts bottles, people have to stop and decode the bin every time. That tiny pause is where mistakes happen.
In my view, separate recycling bins on urban trash cans are not the enemy; bad bin design is. Separate lids can help when they are obvious and consistent. A round hole for bottles, a flap for paper, a picture of a coffee cup with a clear “no liquids” mark—that works. But when the lids look almost the same, or the text is tiny, faded, or only in one language, recycling confusion goes up. People often default to the nearest opening, especially when they are in a hurry or holding a messy container.
I’ve also seen bins where the recycling side is full and the general waste side is empty. People want to do the right thing, but they won’t stand there wrestling with an overflowing flap. Public recycling only works if the system is easy to use in real life: clear icons, consistent colors, local-language labels, and openings that match what people actually throw away. Place them at eye level, keep them clean, and maybe add a simple “bottles here, wrappers there” line.
So do separate lids confuse people? They can—but the problem isn’t separate lids by themselves. The problem is unclear, inconsistent bin design. Make the choice obvious in two seconds, and most people will sort correctly. Make them guess, and even well-meaning people will get it wrong.