Also called: Biomass Plant Operator, Resource Recovery Operator
Runs plants that burn trash or wood waste to make electricity and steam, shrinking garbage by 90 percent along the way.
You run a crane that grabs a car-sized bite of trash from a giant pit and drops it into the furnace. From the control room you balance air, temperature and pollution controls. Then you walk the plant checking boilers, fans and the system that pulls metals from the ash for recycling.
Estimated from BLS power plant operators.
Approximate: anchored on Bureau of Labor Statistics data for a broader job group.
High school diploma, about 1 year after high school. High school plus on-the-job training; a boiler or stationary engineer license is often required.
Ways in: On-the-job training, Certification. Training cost: Get paid while you train.
Majors to look at: Power Plant Technology (2-year).
Shrinking (about -2% over 10 years). Power plant operators overall.
Low risk in 5 years, medium in 10. Control systems automate combustion tuning, so fewer operators per shift; licensed people still run and fix the plant.
Classes: Chemistry, Physics, Environmental science.
Official data: O*NET occupation 51-8013.
Career Universe is an early version. Pay, training and AI-risk figures are estimates to start your own research, not verified facts. The research was written with AI research assistants, checked by validation scripts and spot-checked by hand. Check anything important with schools, employers and official sources. How the numbers work.