Recycling Coordinators
Supervise curbside and drop-off recycling programs for municipal governments or private firms.
Most important skills
- Speaking
- Management of Personnel Resources
- Active Listening
- Critical Thinking
- Coordination
- Time Management
- Reading Comprehension
- Monitoring
Key knowledge
- Customer and Personal Service
- Administration and Management
- Administrative
- Education and Training
- Production and Processing
- Mathematics
- English Language
- Public Safety and Security
What the work involves
- Oversee recycling pick-up or drop-off programs to ensure compliance with community ordinances.
- Supervise recycling technicians, community service workers, or other recycling operations employees or volunteers.
- Identify or investigate new opportunities for materials to be collected and recycled.
- Maintain logs of recycling materials received or shipped to processing companies.
- Provide training to recycling technicians or community service workers on topics such as safety, solid waste processing, or general recycling operations.
- Review customer requests for service to determine service needs and deploy appropriate resources to provide service.
- Assign truck drivers or recycling technicians to routes.
- Coordinate recycling collection schedules to optimize service and efficiency.
Strongest interest areas (O*NET): Enterprising, Conventional, Realistic.
Qualifications and licensing
- Most common education
- High School Diploma or the equivalent (such as a GED) (47.1% of respondents)
- Related experience
- Over 1 year, up to and including 2 years (26.6%)
- On-the-job training
- Over 1 month, up to and including 3 months (33.3%)
- 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 Coordinators is not yet verified for any state: check the state licensing board before planning.
- Projection education uses SOC 53-1042 (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) · 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 | High | Higher on contact with others than 76% of occupations compared | 69% of surveyed respondents chose “Constant contact with others” |
| Dealing with the public | Very high | Higher on dealing with the public than 84% of occupations compared | 55% of surveyed respondents chose “Extremely important” |
| Teamwork | High | Higher on teamwork than 61% of occupations compared | 59% of surveyed respondents chose “Extremely important” |
| Freedom to make decisions | Very high | Higher on freedom to make decisions than 86% of occupations compared | 61% of surveyed respondents chose “A lot of freedom” |
| Time pressure | Low | Lower on time pressure than 64% of occupations compared | 43% of surveyed respondents chose “Once a month or more but not every week” |
| Conflict situations | High | Higher on conflict situations than 73% of occupations compared | 47% of surveyed respondents chose “Once a month or more but not every week” |
| Dealing with unpleasant or angry people | Very high | Higher on dealing with unpleasant or angry people than 80% of occupations compared | 46% of surveyed respondents chose “Once a week or more but not every day” |
| Consequence of error | Moderate | Higher on consequence of error than 53% of occupations compared | 36% of surveyed respondents chose “Very serious” |
Work-pressure profile
- Time pressure: low
- Conflict situations: high
- Dealing with unpleasant or angry people: very high
- 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: 0%
- Occasional contact with others: 0%
- Contact with others about half the time: 0%
- Contact with others most of the time: 31.15%
- Constant contact with others: 68.85%
n = 19, Incumbent 07/2014
Dealing with the public
- Not important at all: 0%
- Fairly important: 8.04%
- Important: 8.35%
- Very important: 28.4%
- Extremely important: 55.2%
n = 19, Incumbent 07/2014
Teamwork
- Not important at all: 0%
- Fairly important: 0%
- Important: 19.02%
- Very important: 21.88%
- Extremely important: 59.1%
n = 19, Incumbent 07/2014
Freedom to make decisions
- No freedom: 0%
- Very little freedom: 0%
- Limited freedom: 2.69%
- Some freedom: 36.2%
- A lot of freedom: 61.11%
n = 19, Incumbent 07/2014
Time pressure
- Never: 0%
- Once a year or more but not every month: 3.61%
- Once a month or more but not every week: 43.08%
- Once a week or more but not every day: 34.15%
- Every day: 19.16%
n = 19, Incumbent 07/2014
Conflict situations
- Never: 2.76%
- Once a year or more but not every month: 20.94%
- Once a month or more but not every week: 46.54%
- Once a week or more but not every day: 13.9%
- Every day: 15.86%
n = 18, Incumbent 07/2014
Dealing with unpleasant or angry people
- Never: 0%
- Once a year or more but not every month: 5.64%
- Once a month or more but not every week: 46.17%
- Once a week or more but not every day: 46.31%
- Every day: 1.88%
n = 18, Incumbent 07/2014
Consequence of error
- Not serious at all: 9.09%
- Fairly serious: 34.21%
- Serious: 10.73%
- Very serious: 36.07%
- Extremely serious: 9.9%
n = 19, Incumbent 07/2014
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O*NET-SOC 53-1042.01 · SOC 53-1042 (detailed_parent, low confidence) · dataset 2026.10.8