Also called: Sanitation Worker, Garbage Truck Driver
Drives the garbage and recycling trucks that empty bins on every street.
You start before dawn, steering an automated truck whose robotic arm grabs and dumps bins, maybe 1,000 houses a day. It's often done by early afternoon, and sanitation jobs in many cities come with solid pay, benefits, and a pension.
Big-city unionized sanitation workers earn much more.
Approximate: anchored on Bureau of Labor Statistics data for a broader job group.
High school diploma, about 0 years after high school. High school; CDL required for drivers.
Ways in: On-the-job training, Certification. Training cost: Get paid while you train.
Growing slowly (about 1% over 10 years). Refuse and recyclable material collectors.
Medium risk for 10 years. Automated side-arm trucks already let one driver replace a crew; jobs shrink, and self-driving trucks loom after 2031.
Age 18+. One way to start: Apply to waste haulers (Waste Management, Republic) or city sanitation as a helper; drivers need a CDL
Classes: Driver's education, PE or fitness.
Official data: O*NET occupation 53-7081.
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.