Critical Thinking 101

I just asked my 13-year-old daughter to take the recycle bin from the back yard and dump it in the recycle bin out front.  Easy, right?  There is, in fact, an enormous, red trash can from the sanitation company out front, which is labeled RECYCLING.  

She came back inside and said it didn't fit.  Understand that the bin she took out front was about the size of a large suitcase, and the trash can outside is a HUGE TRASH CAN.  I was like, "what are you talking about?!  They picked up all the trash yesterday!"

A few minutes of total miscommunication ensued, until I realized that she had simply dumped one small container into another small container of the exact same size, which happened to be sitting directly next to the HUGE TRASH CAN LABELED RECYCLABLES.  Wtf?

She's not stupid - I mean, she's 13 and all, so there's the regular teenage stupidity factor happening, but she is generally an intelligent, critically-thinking human being.  So this makes me wonder how we are supposed to teach our kids how to think, and then (more importantly) how we know if we've done that job properly.  Obviously, I did something wrong, because even someone who's not very bright would have just left the full container out front and brought the empty container to the back!!  It doesn't make any sense, and thus I am worried for the future of all humankind.