San Francisco residents may think they are hip about the environment, but it is a little known fact that 75 percent of all cans and bottles recycled in California are not redeemed for cash by the customers who bought them. Instead, they are collected, sorted, and traded for nickels and dimes by people like Greg Norwood. One warm September evening, I joined this underground economy at Dolores Park to learn first-hand how it works.

The park was crowded and I knew I would have no problem collecting a decent amount of bottles and cans to redeem for recycling refunds. I sat where I had a good view of several large groups, eyeing them closely to be the first to spot freshly emptied bottles and cans. I was not the only collector on duty, and competition was fierce.

With each bottle collected, I gave myself a mental pat on the back. As I was preparing to call it quits, one of my beer-soaked paper bags gave way. Luckily I had met someone earlier who had offered me another bag. On my way back to the bus, smelling like a pub and with clanking bags in hand, I was still scouring the streets for bottles and cans to add to my collection. When I came across a garbage can with an entire six-pack of empty bottles sitting on top of a garbage can waiting to be collected, I literally squealed with joy. I finally managed to get on the bus and situate my bags when I noticed several people look up from their books.

The walk up the large hill to my apartment was far from easy. I made sure to move as steadily as possible to make sure nothing fell out - if it did, I was unsure I would be able to retrieve it. My boyfriend happened to drive by just as several of my cans had fallen out and rolled under a car, and I was squatted down trying to reach them. I had to laugh at myself.

That ordeal, which took me roughly four hours, earned me $2.66. For some, this may be pocket change, but for others it is the difference between eating and going hungry.

Norwood, 42, has been recycling for about an hour a day for the past five years. Before that, he was homeless. "I do it to have a couple bucks in my pocket," Norwood says. "It's an honest buck."

According to Greg Gaar, a long-time employee of the Haight Ashbury Neighborhood Council Recycling Center (HANC), diversity is never in short supply at the recycling center. "The majority of our customers are immigrant families," says Gaar, 61. "We also see lots of merchants who have restaurants, and people who drive up in their Mercedes' or Jaguars." Before the California Bottle Bill was enacted in 1986, he recalls that most of the materials were donated from the original purchaser. Site manager Charlie Lamar says that the purpose of the law was to encourage recycling, specifically among those who may not have alternative sources of income.

Consumers have three options for recycling. Those who are looking to earn something in return can redeem containers at various supermarket -based recycling centers or privately operated recycling centers around the city. Others may choose to donate the containers without collecting the redemption value. Consumers may also leave the containers curbside for pick up by neighborhood garbage and recycling
companies. Robert Reed, Public Relations Manager at Sunset Scavengers Company, says that the larger of the company's two recycling facilities - Recycling Central on Pier 96 in the Embarcadero - receives around seven hundred tons per day from the city's blue carts.

According to Lamar, about 75 percent of HANC Recycling Center's customers are not the original purchasers of the bottles and cans redeemed. Still, when beverages are purchased from a retailer, consumers are paying California Refund Value - CRV. Since January 1, 2007, that redemption value for containers less than 24 ounces is five cents and each beverage container 24 ounces or greater is ten cents. Lynn, 42, who prefers that her last name not be mentioned, has relied solely on income from recycling the past four years. Her husband, nicknamed "Recycling Tex," has been recycling as an occupation since he was a child. "My grand daddy used to tie a magnet around my neck and tell me to bring back everything the magnet attracted," Tex says. "He'd pay me a penny for every can."

Many of the bottles and cans they redeem come from residential blue carts around the city; it is an honest buck for this homeless couple. "They're throwing it away, so why not let people benefit?" Lynn says. She lost her job about five years ago, and says she began recycling after she was released from prison about a year later. "It was either sell drugs, sell my ass, steal, or recycle," she says.

The California Bottle Bill covers all beverage containers with the exception of wine and alcohol bottles. "There should be a deposit on all bottles, and that includes soap bottles and bleach bottles, because if there's no deposit on it there's no incentive to recycle it," Gaar says. "To me that doesn't make sense."

Since January 1, 2009, the minimum wage rate in San Francisco has been $9.79. For someone to earn a living solely through recycling, that person would have to redeem roughly 1500 under 24-ounce containers or 750 24-ounce or greater containers daily.

As Gaar reminds us, it is important that recycling is not the only effort we make in order to give back to our environment. "Recycling is important, don't get me wrong, but it takes a lot of fossil fuel to recycle," Gaar says. "Ideally with recycling we should be reusing the same bottle over and over again. Eventually we'll get to that."