I suspect Mack the Knife is pretty close. Where labor is expensive, it makes sense to strip out the 'good stuff' early on in the process. But where labor is cheap, you can simply put a pile of wreckage in front of 'recyclers', tell them they get X% of what they salvage, and wait...
I was recently in Jakarta - that's the basic system they use. No one bothers to strip out recyclables from the trash, it's not worth the trouble. Trash haulers pick up everything, sift out the good stuff from the chaff, and burn the rest (which does wonders for the already
air quality).
Further, it's not just 3rd world countries - a couple years ago I replaced a old water heater, and asked my sister's hubby if I could borrow his truck to haul the old one off to the recycler. He said "don't bother, leave it on the sidewalk and it'll be gone in 24 hours". Sure enough, within a few hours there was a guy at the door making sure I didn't mind if he hauled off the old water heater
