Also called: Waste Sort Technician, Waste Audit Specialist
Digs through truckloads of trash, sorting and weighing everything by type so cities and companies know exactly what they throw away.
In protective suits, your crew dumps a garbage truck sample onto a tarp at the landfill. You sort it into dozens of bins: food, plastic film, cardboard, electronics, diapers. Each bin is weighed and logged, and the results help the city plan its recycling program.
Estimated from environmental consulting postings; sort crews may be seasonal.
Approximate: anchored on Bureau of Labor Statistics data for a broader job group.
Bachelor's degree (4-year), about 4 years after high school. Bachelor's in environmental science helps; crew roles may hire without one.
Ways in: 4-year college, On-the-job training. Training cost: Under $15k.
Majors to look at: Environmental Science, Environmental Studies, Sustainability.
Growing about average. State recycling laws and zero-waste goals require regular waste studies.
Low risk in 5 years, medium in 10. AI cameras are starting to sort waste, but detailed audits still rely on hand sorting.
Classes: Environmental science, Statistics, Biology.
Official data: O*NET occupation 19-4042.
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.