Why isn't there a law for this?

I was browsing Craigslist the other day, searching for places to advertise our website and I ended up in the Ecology forum.  Someone mentioned that in some countries in Europe, it's illegal to throw things in the trash that could be recycled.  And I thought to myself - what a great idea!  Why isn't there a law in America for this??  We have laws for other things that people would rather not do, even though they better our society and our lifestyle.   One example of this would be paying taxes.  People whine and complain about paying taxes, though we ALL benefit from this requirement.  We all utilize roads, public schools, public libraries, and much more.  Granted, our current administration doesn't always use my tax money in the ways I would like, but we have the power through our votes and our voices to ask our representatives to spend money the way we'd like it to be spent.  Taxes do better our society but without being forced by law to pay them, how many of us would voluntarily give a chunk of our paychecks to Uncle Sam?  

Another example is insurance.  Most of you know I work for Allstate... and I hear on a daily basis the grumbling of consumers who are forced to pay for insurance because by law you have to have it to drive or even own a home.  If they had a choice, it's unlikely that they'd purchase the policies I have for sale... But if we didn't have insurance and we were faced with a loss of our home or a car accident in which our child ended up hospitalized for months, most of us could not afford to replace the home or pay for our child's medical care without insurance.

I think recycling should be a requirement for American households as well.  And along with that, easier ways for people to recycle their discarded items.  Curbside recycling is not an option in my neighborhood (yet).  We have to bag up our items weekly or bi-weekly and drive them down into town where the city has a recycling center set up.  Yes, it's inconvenient, but it's still important.  A curbside recycling program would make this a lot easier on the citizens of my city.  

There is plenty of evidence out there and scientists no longer disagree about the effects of our carbon output on climate change. We know what we're doing is wrong and we all know of the positive impact recycling has on our society.  Yet we still have bags and bags of trash out on the street each week to be taken to a landfill.  I think it's time for the government to step in and force us to do what we should already be doing but for whatever reason ... don't.  Isn't that what they are there for?