STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Anthony McCorkle wishes he owned his own recycling business.

Paying the city Department of Sanitation $2,000 for putting a bag of plastic bottles into his brother's car would likely amount to chump change if he were running a lucrative recycling business.

But times are tough for the 42-year-old West Brighton man. Baseball season is over at CitiField, where Anthony works summers as a porter during Mets games. Same with seasonal carpentry work.

To make ends meet, Anthony delivers the Advance to some friendly subscribers along his route who set aside plastic bottles for him to pick up so he can cash in

for a little extra.

"If I hold them for a week," Anthony says of the recyclables he collects, "I can make $20, $30."

Twenty bucks won't buy you 10 bucks these days, not even the radio knobs on a car. Anthony had to borrow his brother Michael's car on Oct. 8 to deliver papers.

"I get there at 8 in the morning to start," Anthony says, detailing a paper route that stretches from Taylor Street to Trinity, among others.

"When I got to Alaska Street, people had given me permission to go in the front yard and take the plastic bottles."

Apparently Sanitation Enforcement Agent Robert Barrows thought he saw a deep-pocketed recycling tycoon stashing a bag of plastic bottles in a 1997 Hyundai when he spotted Anthony on Alaska Street at about 8:30 that Friday morning.

Barrows approached Anthony and told him to "turn off the car and give me the keys."

"It's my brother's car," Anthony replied. "I need the car to finish my paper route."

Barrows didn't want to hear it. He accused Anthony of operating his own recycling business with his car and threatened to haul him off to jail if he didn't hand over the car keys.

"What am I gonna do?" Anthony asks, shrugging his shoulders inside his Caroline Street home yesterday. "I go to jail, I definitely can't afford that bill.

Anthony wisely handed over the car keys.

Barrows handed over a citation that called for Anthony to appear in front of the city's Environmental Control Board.

"...I did observe [Anthony McCorkle] unlawfully remove recyclable glass, metal, plastic, placed out for collection ... and place into a 1997 white Hyundai ... without written authorization from the property owner," Barrows wrote in the ticket.

Never mind Anthony's written petition with 36 signatures of people who are more than happy to help him out by giving him their plastic bottles to cash in for a few measly dollars.

When Anthony saw the fine he'd pay if he's convicted of removing residential recyclables and placing them into a vehicle, he almost choked on his empty wallet.

A maximum $2,000.

Since the car is registered to Anthony's brother, Michael McCorkle would also have to pay $2,000, along with the $120 it will cost to get the car back from the impound.

"They took my car for something I didn't do," Michael, 37, says.

Sanitation couldn't care less. Two grand is two-grand. Four grand is twice as grand.

"It's unlawful for any person, except for DSNY, to remove or transport by motor vehicle any recyclable materials placed out at curbside, within the stoop line, or in front of the premise for collection or removal by DSNY," says DSNY spokesman Matthew Lipani.

"The Department does not issue violations to individuals who remove curbside recyclables via shopping cart or on foot," Lipani maintains.

In other words, if you're down and out and raiding front yards for plastic bottles and cans with a shopping cart, you're OK in Sanitation's book.

But when you're trying to do an honest day's work collecting bottles and cans with the property owners' permission and your brother's borrowed car, it'll cost you and your brother $2,000 each, and another $120 to get the car back because Sanitation is under the delusion that you can afford it.

That's what you get when a garbage man picks up the law.