Description
Prepare and sort materials or products for recycling. Identify and remove hazardous substances. Dismantle components of products such as appliances.
- • Extract chemicals from discarded appliances, such as air conditioners or refrigerators, using specialized machinery, such as refrigerant recovery equipment.
- • Sort materials, such as metals, glass, wood, paper or plastics, into appropriate containers for recycling.
- • Collect recyclable materials from curbside for delivery to designated facilities.
- • Deposit recoverable materials into chutes or place materials on conveyor belts.
- • Operate automated refuse or manual recycling collection vehicles.
- • Operate balers to compress recyclable materials into bundles or bales.
- • 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.
- • Operate processing equipment, such as fiber-sorters and grinders, to sort, crush, or grind recyclable materials.
- • Record logs of recycled materials or waste chemicals removed from products.
- • Sort metals to separate high-grade metals, such as copper, brass, and aluminum, for recycling.
- • Clean materials, such as metals, according to recycling requirements.
- • Clean recycling yard by sweeping, raking, picking up broken glass and loose paper debris, or moving barrels and bins.
- • Collect and sort recyclable construction materials, such as concrete, drywall, plastics, or wood, into containers.
- • 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.
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Tasks & skills:
O*NET occupational data (work activities, skills, knowledge).
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Sources & Standards:
This site includes information from O*NET by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA), used under the CC BY 4.0 license. Career Clutch has modified some of this information for student readability. USDOL/ETA has not approved, endorsed, or tested these modifications. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA.
Last reviewed: Jan 2026
