A nickel here, a dime there — recycling bottles, cans and cardboard can really add up. Most of us can’t be bothered sorting the recyclables and returning them at a recycling center for profit, so we leave them curbside in a blue recycling bin.

Others don’t see the hassle in sorting the recyclables and they make pretty decent money turning the cans, bottles and cardboard into cash.

It seems like a win-win situation. Homeowners who don’t want to recycle at a recycling center don’t have to; recycling scavengers make some money and the recyclable materials get a second chance which is good for the environment. But there’s still a problem.

Removing recyclables from trash and recycling bins is illegal.

Still, many scavengers are willing to collect the cans and hope they don’t get a fine which in the city of San Diego starts at $100 per violation. Matthew, the homeless man in our 10News I-Team story is likeable and polite. Yet he is breaking the law by looting recycling bins all over the city, including in the La Jolla neighborhood where our cameras caught him in the act.

That’s the hard part of reporting a story like this. On the one hand, recycling theft is against the law; but on the other hand it’s hard not to feel compassion for the people who rely on the stolen bottles and cans to survive.

We first reported on recycling theft in June and we caught heat from people who thought we were heartless and accused us of attacking the way of life for many homeless San Diegans. Others told us recycling theft was an annoying problem that seemed to be overlooked by law enforcement, code enforcement and city officials.

It turns out the city of San Diego only has about a dozen code compliance officers who crack down on illegal recycling theft. But that’s not their only job. A code compliance officer also deals with transient camps, illegal dumping and trash hazards all over the city.

A representative from the city of San Diego’s Neighborhood Code Compliance tells us the increase in recycling theft is part of a bigger problem – the down economy. More and more scavengers need the cash from recycling cans, but then again, so does the city which relies on the extra money to help out the city’s general fund and pay expenses. The city of San Diego doesn’t have a dollar figure on how much money they lose from the looting, but according to the Associated Press, smaller California cities like Berkeley lose about $50,000 a year from recycling theft.

Now a new law which takes effect January 1, 2009 will crack down on people who recycle in bulk, which most of the time involves organized scavengers.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed AB 1778 which “requires recyclers to pay by check and obtain identifying information of individuals who bring in more than $100 worth of CRV recyclables and more than $50 worth of newspapers.  2,200 aluminum cans have a cash value of $100; 840 pounds of newspaper has a value of $50,” according to Assemblywoman Fiona Ma (D-San Francisco) who drafted the legislation.

Report a Neighborhood Code Compliance violation within the City of San Diego.