recycling worker
Recycling workers clean materials and remove waste, and ensure the waste and collected materials are sorted in the appropriate recycling containers. They also dismantle vehicles and sort the parts collected, and deposit recyclable materials onto conveyor belts where they can be further sorted.
recycling worker recycling workers clean materials and remove waste, and ensure the waste and collected materials are sorted in the appropriate recycling containers. The role shows moderate AI exposure (0.50 on a 0-1 scale) — some tasks are being automated but the role adapts. The most in-demand skills for the role include health, safety and hygiene legislation, waste management, waste and scrap products, assess waste type, operate recycling processing equipment.
Pay in the UK
UK: median £27,857 a year for Refuse and salvage occupations (ONS ASHE 2025, full-time)
Middle half of full-time jobs: £25,803 to £31,223 a year
UK jobs are grouped differently; this is the closest UK occupation group (ONS SOC 2020 9225). ONS rates this estimate precise. 2025 provisional figures; ONS revises them a year later. Source: ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (Open Government Licence)
Pay in India (occupation group)
Average monthly earnings of salaried employees in the occupation group “Elementary occupations” in India, from the Government of India's Periodic Labour Force Survey (January–December 2025). It covers everyone in this group, not only recycling worker, and it is not US pay converted to rupees.
Source: MoSPI (Government of India), Periodic Labour Force Survey Annual Report 2025, Table 51 — average wage/salary earnings of regular wage/salaried employees, NCO-2015 division 9. Official India data gives one average per occupation group: there are no official India figures for single careers, experience levels or cities. Read the report
Top skills
Knowledge you'll build
- Mechanical
- English Language
- Transportation
- Customer and Personal Service
- Public Safety and Security
- Administration and Management
- Telecommunications
- Computers and Electronics
What you'd actually do
- Inspect trucks prior to beginning routes to ensure safe operating condition.
- Drive trucks, following established routes, through residential streets or alleys or through business or industrial areas.
- Refuel trucks or add other fluids, such as oil or brake fluid.
- Dump refuse or recyclable materials at disposal sites.
- Fill out defective equipment reports.
- Operate automated or semi-automated hoisting devices that raise refuse bins and dump contents into openings in truck bodies.
Tools & technology you'd use
Frequently asked questions
What does recycling worker do?
Recycling workers clean materials and remove waste, and ensure the waste and collected materials are sorted in the appropriate recycling containers. They also dismantle vehicles and sort the parts collected, and deposit recyclable materials onto conveyor belts where they can be further sorted.
What skills does recycling worker need?
The most in-demand skills for this role include health, safety and hygiene legislation, waste management, waste and scrap products, assess waste type, operate recycling processing equipment, ensure compliance with waste legislative regulations. These are the skills O*NET identifies as most important for competent performance.
Will AI replace recycling worker?
Our AI-durability model gives recycling worker a score of 0.50 on a 0-1 scale (higher = more exposure). That places it at moderate AI exposure — some tasks are being automated but the role adapts. Learning to work with AI tools rather than against them is the path forward.