Will AI replace Refuse and Recyclable Material Collectors?
Estimated risk score: 25 out of 100
Lower replacement risk
Estimate from published task research, not reviewed by a person · how we estimate
Within about 19 points for 4 in 5 of the jobs we checked (6 to 44).
For the occupation as a whole, from ratings of its 16 O*NET tasks published in 2023 and calibrated to our hand scores. A specialty inside it can sit higher or lower.
O*NET-SOC 53-7081.00 · Transportation and Material Moving
Tasks rated in 2023 as ones AI could do or speed up
Tasks a GPT-4-class model could do, or do in half the time or less: 5 of its 16 rated tasks; the first 4 are shown. In O*NET’s words.
- Fill out defective equipment reports.
- Organize schedules for refuse collection.
- Check road or weather conditions to determine how routes will be affected.
- Communicate with dispatchers concerning delays, unsafe sites, accidents, equipment breakdowns, or other maintenance problems.
Tasks rated in 2023 as not sped up by AI
Tasks such a model was rated as not speeding up or taking over: 11 of its 16 rated tasks; the first 6 are shown. In O*NET’s words.
- Clean trucks or compactor bodies after routes have been completed.
- Dismount garbage trucks to collect garbage and remount trucks to ride to the next collection point.
- Drive trucks, following established routes, through residential streets or alleys or through business or industrial areas.
- Dump refuse or recyclable materials at disposal sites.
- Inspect trucks prior to beginning routes to ensure safe operating condition.
- Operate automated or semi-automated hoisting devices that raise refuse bins and dump contents into openings in truck bodies.
What the job is
Collect and dump refuse or recyclable materials from containers into truck. May drive truck.
Also called: Garbage Man, Trash Collector, Sanitation Laborer, Roll Off Truck Driver, Dumpman, Junkman, Recycler, Trash Man.
Closest jobs we score by hand
In the same field (Transportation and Material Moving). Different jobs, each scored by a person.
Source. This site includes information from the O*NET 30.1 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. USDOL/ETA has not approved, endorsed, or tested these modifications. (O*NET, CC BY 4.0.) Task ratings: Eloundou, Manning, Mishkin and Rock (2023), “GPTs are GPTs: An Early Look at the Labor Market Impact Potential of Large Language Models”, data used under the MIT licence (licence texts). Our change: we averaged the ratings over this occupation’s tasks and calibrated them to our 0–100 scale. It is not a prediction about any one person and not career advice. Disagree? Write to hello@yourstopwashit.com. How we estimate