BottleBank program: Consumers upset 400+ San Francisco retailers don’t give cash back for recycling. Here’s why [Video]

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — More than $1 million is spent on a San Francisco program that’s supposed to encourage convenient, easy recycling – but public records tell a different story.

Pressure is mounting for Mayor London Breed to pull the plug on the program.

“Innovative… cutting edge… easy.”

That’s how San Francisco’s BottleBank pilot project is described online. It launched with the intention to encourage consumers to recycle while getting their CRV credits back or California Redemption Value Cash Deposits. But public records show only 0.8% of the city’s population actually subscribed to it over the past two years.

RELATED: SF BottleBank recycling program spent $4M to return less than $220K in CRVs to consumers

And it’s not cheap.

It cost $1.42 million to operate last year, and if you break down the numbers it costs the program 41 cents to hand back a nickel to a consumer.

So, is it really working?

“It’s a little inconvenient, but I figure it out,” …