I am also frustrated with this. I experienced something similar when I went to Utah to visit my grandparents. They live about 2 hours outside Salt Lake City (which is the nearest "big" city) and they do not have a recycling program anywhere in their city.
I got a little curious about this and found a few links that could help someone start a recycling program whether it is at the office, school, etc.
http://pages.uoregon.edu/recycle/howto_text.htmhttp://www.dosomething.org/actnow/actionguide/start-a-s
chool-recycling-programhttp://www.inc.com/guides/2010/04/start-office-recyclin
g-program.htmlhttp://www.ehow.com/how_2282551_start-recycling-program
.htmlI hope these help!