Recycling and Reclamation Workers
Prepare and sort materials or products for recycling. Identify and remove hazardous substances. Dismantle components of products such as appliances.
Most important skills
- Operation and Control
- Active Listening
- Monitoring
- Operations Monitoring
- Speaking
- Critical Thinking
- Quality Control Analysis
- Reading Comprehension
Key knowledge
- Production and Processing
- Mechanical
- Administration and Management
- Public Safety and Security
- Education and Training
- Customer and Personal Service
- English Language
- Personnel and Human Resources
What the work involves
- Sort materials, such as metals, glass, wood, paper or plastics, into appropriate containers for recycling.
- Operate forklifts, pallet jacks, power lifts, or front-end loaders to load bales, bundles, or other heavy items onto trucks for shipping to smelters or other recycled materials processing facilities.
- Sort metals to separate high-grade metals, such as copper, brass, and aluminum, for recycling.
- Clean recycling yard by sweeping, raking, picking up broken glass and loose paper debris, or moving barrels and bins.
- Clean, inspect, or lubricate recyclable collection equipment or perform routine maintenance or minor repairs on recycling equipment, such as star gears, finger sorters, destoners, belts, and grinders.
- Extract chemicals from discarded appliances, such as air conditioners or refrigerators, using specialized machinery, such as refrigerant recovery equipment.
- Collect recyclable materials from curbside for delivery to designated facilities.
- Deposit recoverable materials into chutes or place materials on conveyor belts.
Strongest interest areas (O*NET): Realistic, Conventional, Investigative.
Qualifications and licensing
- Most common education
- High School Diploma or the equivalent (such as a GED) (74.1% of respondents)
- Related experience
- Over 6 months, up to and including 1 year (29.7%)
- On-the-job training
- Anything beyond short demonstration, up to and including 1 month (35.5%)
- Preparation level
- O*NET job zone 2: Job Zone 1-2: Very Little to Some Preparation Needed
- Licensing
- Not yet verified. Check your state licensing board.
Check before planning
- Licensing for Recycling and Reclamation Workers is not yet verified for any state: check the state licensing board before planning.
- Projection education uses SOC 53-7062 (detailed_parent); it may describe a broader group.
Limits
- Distributions show what current workers or occupational experts report, not legal minimums.
- Requirements vary by employer and state; time to qualify is not estimated.
Source: O*NET 31.0 Database (USDOL/ETA, CC BY 4.0); BLS Employment Projections · dataset 2026.10.8 · method e3-qualification-1.0.0
Work environment
How the typical conditions of this occupation compare with 911 occupations in O*NET (very low = the lowest fifth).
Levels are relative. Most occupations involve a lot of contact with people, for example, so “very low” can still mean regular contact; the last column shows what workers actually reported.
| Condition | Level | Compared with other occupations | Most common answer (O*NET survey) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Contact with others | Low | Lower on contact with others than 74% of occupations compared | 52% of surveyed respondents chose “Constant contact with others” |
| Dealing with the public | Very low | Lower on dealing with the public than 86% of occupations compared | 47% of surveyed respondents chose “Not important at all” |
| Teamwork | Very low | Lower on teamwork than 86% of occupations compared | 37% of surveyed respondents chose “Extremely important” |
| Freedom to make decisions | Very low | Lower on freedom to make decisions than 88% of occupations compared | 34% of surveyed respondents chose “A lot of freedom” |
| Time pressure | Low | Lower on time pressure than 76% of occupations compared | 33% of surveyed respondents chose “Every day” |
| Conflict situations | Very low | Lower on conflict situations than 91% of occupations compared | 55% of surveyed respondents chose “Never” |
| Dealing with unpleasant or angry people | Very low | Lower on dealing with unpleasant or angry people than 82% of occupations compared | 41% of surveyed respondents chose “Never” |
| Consequence of error | Moderate | Higher on consequence of error than 50% of occupations compared | 26% of surveyed respondents chose “Very serious” |
Work-pressure profile
- Time pressure: low
- Conflict situations: very low
- Dealing with unpleasant or angry people: very low
- Consequence of error: moderate
Each part is shown on its own. There is no combined stress score, and conditions vary by employer and role.
Full answer distributions
Contact with others
- No contact with others: 6.72%
- Occasional contact with others: 9.48%
- Contact with others about half the time: 10.91%
- Contact with others most of the time: 21.35%
- Constant contact with others: 51.55%
n = 29, Incumbent 07/2012
Dealing with the public
- Not important at all: 47.29%
- Fairly important: 15.06%
- Important: 6.69%
- Very important: 19.25%
- Extremely important: 11.71%
n = 29, Incumbent 07/2012
Teamwork
- Not important at all: 12.4%
- Fairly important: 8.99%
- Important: 14.92%
- Very important: 26.85%
- Extremely important: 36.85%
n = 29, Incumbent 07/2012
Freedom to make decisions
- No freedom: 8.53%
- Very little freedom: 19.09%
- Limited freedom: 19.24%
- Some freedom: 19.51%
- A lot of freedom: 33.63%
n = 29, Incumbent 07/2012
Time pressure
- Never: 8.03%
- Once a year or more but not every month: 21.33%
- Once a month or more but not every week: 15.74%
- Once a week or more but not every day: 22.16%
- Every day: 32.73%
n = 29, Incumbent 07/2012
Conflict situations
- Never: 55.29%
- Once a year or more but not every month: 4.29%
- Once a month or more but not every week: 17.76%
- Once a week or more but not every day: 19.85%
- Every day: 2.81%
n = 29, Incumbent 07/2012
Dealing with unpleasant or angry people
- Never: 40.94%
- Once a year or more but not every month: 25.97%
- Once a month or more but not every week: 9.27%
- Once a week or more but not every day: 14.5%
- Every day: 9.32%
n = 29, Incumbent 07/2012
Consequence of error
- Not serious at all: 19.12%
- Fairly serious: 20.68%
- Serious: 18.95%
- Very serious: 26.37%
- Extremely serious: 14.88%
n = 28, Incumbent 07/2012
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O*NET-SOC 53-7062.04 · SOC 53-7062 (detailed_parent, medium confidence) · dataset 2026.10.8