Is It Really Stealing?

I know that there are several articles I have read or heard about over the course of the last few months living in San Francisco demonizing the people who scavenge from the recycling bins that people put out with their trash. (They traditionally take out cardboard or CRV marked cans/botttles for recycling to make some cash.) The argument is that it is ripping off the people who have paid for Sunset Scavengers to pick it all up.

Then last night I was checking out the green compost bins (to see if I could talk my landlord into getting one). I learned that if you pay for them to pick up the black trash bin, you can get the other two (the blue recycling & the green compost) for free. If that's true, then it's just people getting mad that people are going through their trash & finding enough stuff over time to earn money off of it.

Is this a hatred akin to the one for dumpster divers in most parts?

It's just strange to me to think about because there are lots of places around the city where people will also just put old things of theirs that they no longer want on the sidewalk for others to come along & pick up if they want it. (I've put out & picked up plenty of street clothes & such.) And there's the Really Free Market in Dolores Park every month where people bring things to freely trade.

So then why do we have problems with those taking from the bins? Is it because they are taking from our bins, rather than the bags we put out with the intention of people looking through them? Or is it because they are taking things we put out & managing to make money off of them (whereas few people would have the space to accumulate enough to earn a reasonable amount of money off of these items)?

I don't know. But it's an answer I'd be very interested in learning.


EDIT: after talking with my friend Jake (a long time dumpster diver), there are a few more tentative ideas I would like to add.
~I presume the trash companies are losing money from the stuff being scavenged because they will not earn the money from selling the recyclables. But I can't say for sure because this point would not be likely to be printed in an article. (Because a "boo hoo! we don't make as much money!" argument would not work so well.)
~I wonder if they are intended to incite more scorn for the homeless because they are most likely to be the ones scavenging (or thought to be scavenging...plenty in the Haight neighborhood clean out the recyclables from Golden Gate Park....where there is no recycle bins). As well as those without homes who recycle cans & bottles to earn money are not part of the City's Care Not Cash Program.
~I wonder if articles like this increase racial tensions because the drivers of the cardboard trucks I see are Latino.
~My neighborhood recycling center is under threat for eviction because they are being accused that many of their patrons are homeless gentlemen who are scavenging from the neighborhood's bins. One of the men in charge there said that they were having problems with Sunset Scavengers (the trash company) because also by having a recycling facility, less CRV containers were being thrown in the bins (although by California law there must be a recycling facility with a cash-back program within a certain number of miles of a major distribution center, ie. Safeway). He said they were going to have trouble if the issue got up to the level of the mayor because the head of the Sunset Scavengers is a former mayor, & had the present mayor as a deputy.

Political manipulation of facts (even when unintentional) is bullshit.

Thank you.

(All comments will be greatly appreciated.)