My boyfriend and I moved in with each other. He wants to make sure we recycle, and he insisted on a step on trash can. His main thing is he does not want to have to touch lid of trash can. 
The area we moved to does not take blue bags for recycling, they have a specific bin you have to request and put all your recycling in the bin, not in bags. So we use one of these for recycling and we do not line the bin, while we use the other for trash. It is almost as wide as our island, so we put it on the end of the island so it is easy to get to, but not in the way. 
They two sides open separately, so if you are putting a can in for recycle, you dont have to let trash odors escape. Both sides have handles to pull out the bins, which we use to dump the recycling from the kitchen into the bin for the recycling truck. We are very happy with this trash can.