I don't have data, but from my own experience (I am Brazilian, living in the US for 7 yrs) I can tell you that recycling is not very common simply because people reuse a lot of stuff rather than recycling. The concept of reuse is ingrained in the culture due to lack of money, and not only the poor, but the middle-class do it a lot too. Some examples:

* Product plastic containers are washed and reused to store food, instead of throwing them away. Plastic containers are made sturdier (sometimes even made out of glass and with nice designs) because the companies know people will reuse them, so companies see it as a kind of free product advertisement.

* Soft drinks and beer are commonly sold in big glass bottles, which are then taken back to the distributor, washed, and then reused (not recycled, but reused).

* Electronics: Because labor is cheap and goods are expensive, people fix equipments instead of throwing them away. Parts are reused to the max, and there is an entire after-market ecosystem for them.

Last time I visited my family, it struck me how smaller my mom's trash can in Brazil is compared to my trash can here in the US. It may sound like a dumb comparison, but illustrates my point that we generate way more trash over here (and I am actually pretty conscious about reusing stuff).