JUSTIN CHIN - [X]PRESS Jerry Johnson, 42, waits in line to weigh his recyclables at San Francisco Community Recyclables Center on Market Street.

Rickie Jones, 36, empties out canisters of bottles into a large metal container as a line of men and women await their turn to exchange their recyclables for money. Jones says he can make $60 to $80 a night finding bottles and cans to recycle.

“Most of the people that recycle here are homeless and this is our way of feeding ourselves and making our daily living,” said Jones, who works at the center and also trades recyclables for cash.

This is a daily routine for men and women who recycle cans and bottles at the San Francisco Community Recyclers center on Market Street. A new environmental law proposed by Mayor Gavin Newsom will require residents to separate their garbage correctly, placing recyclables into correct bins. Not following through means the trash will not be emptied out. This new law is being greeted by recyclable collectors with a mixture of opinions.

“If they’re already pre-separated, it might make it a lot easier for us, to pick the cans and bottles out,” said Jerry Johnson, 42, who was recycling his cans and bottles.

“The people in the neighborhoods are kind of frustrated because recycling people come through and they mess the garbage up or whatnot. This might make it actually less messier because we wouldn’t have to go through the garbage to collect the cans and bottles,” Johnson said.

Jones’ idea doesn’t steer too far away from those of Johnson.

“We’re gonna go through whatever we need to go through to get the recyclables out, and if they’re in the black and the green, then we make a mess,” Jones said.

But Robert Reed, spokesperson for Norcal Waste System, considers this theft, going so far as to call can collectors “illegal poacher fleets.” Reed feels strongly that can collectors should be stopped and fined.

Expressing how easy it is to use the recycling bins, Reed shows his disappointment in residents who do not recycle.

“It is just as easy to throw bottles, cans and paper in the blue recycling cart as it is to throw them in a garbage can,” Reed said.