But recycling has also become a big business. When Boston, Cambridge and Somerville passed "living wage" laws requiring that all businesses with city contracts pay at least poverty-level wages, recycling contractor KTI refused to bid on the contracts unless their business was exempted.

"Sorters" at KTI's Charlestown plant perform dirty and dangerous work for barely over the minimum wage. These low wages not only affect the workers and their families, but place a strain on community services - most low-wage workers can't afford health insurance and are unable to pay for emergency medical treatment.

It wasn't a question of whether KTI could afford to pay its workers decent wages - this "waste industry" giant makes plenty of profits on its operations and could easily afford to make bids on the contracts that would be in compliance to the law.

But because of KTI's capacity and its location, the company knew that there was no other contractor that would be able to submit a bid that wouldn't result in greatly increased costs to the three cities. So KTI used its monopoly position to blackmail Cambridge and Somerville into granting it an exemption from the living wage requirement. (In Boston, no waiver was granted, but the city continues to contract with KTI month to month on a no-bid basis.)

What can be done? On the municipal level, we need to demand that the leaders of the three living wage cities begin to explore long-term alternatives to KTI. One possibility would be for Boston to take over the KTI site by eminent domain and convert it to a city-managed facility.

Perhaps it's time for the recycling movement to rediscover its routes and start developing grass-roots, sweatshop-free alternatives. KTI actually makes a profit from the collection of newsprint, and kicks back a share to the cities involved, thus making them (and us) still more complicit in KTI's sub-poverty wages. A "people's paper drive" might be a good way to publicize the plight of KTI workers and deprive the company of some profit at the same time.