Recycling and Reclamation Workers

Key skills

A typical day

• •Sort materials, such as metals, glass, wood, paper or plastics, into appropriate containers for recycling.
• •Clean recycling yard by sweeping, raking, picking up broken glass and loose paper debris, or moving barrels and bins.
• •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, 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.

Fields of study

Any field