Industry group, 5621
Waste Collection
222,030 people work in this industry in the US, at mean pay of $57,640 a year (BLS, May 2025). What follows is how much of their working time the best AI models could finish, when, and in which jobs and tasks. Estimates.
of the paid hours. Estimate.
a year: 76 million hours at what they cost. Not a forecast of savings.
- 22%
- 7%
- 72%
of the paid hours are within reach now in tasks people already bring to Claude. Another 14% is within reach in tasks not yet seen there.
Across the US: 22% within reach now and 37% by the end of 2028, on the long-run pace at four in five.
Share of the paid hours within reach, now to 2030
What each choice means: , , , , . Every pace starts from .
How far this has come
With GPT-4, measured in March 2023, 0% of this industry's paid hours were within reach at . With Claude 3.7 Sonnet, measured in February 2025, 2%. With Claude Mythos Preview (early), measured in April 2026, 15%. Today's estimate: 17%.
A backcast: today's task data with the best model METR had measured by each date. It shows how fast the models have moved, not what anyone forecast at the time.
Where the hours are
Jobs by hours within reach now. The 32 largest jobs hold 95% of the people.
| People | Pay here | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Heavy and Tractor-Trailer Truck Drivers | 43,490 | 14% | 12 million | $55K |
| Office Clerks, General | 7,920 | 54% | 8.9 million | $46K |
| Refuse and Recyclable Material Collectors | 76,410 | 6% | 8.9 million | $51K |
| Customer Service Representatives | 4,880 | 64% | 6.5 million | $45K |
| Dispatchers, Except Police, Fire, and Ambulance | 2,710 | 80% | 4.5 million | $57K |
| Sales Representatives of Services, Except Advertising, Insurance, Financial Services, and Travel | 4,250 | 43% | 3.8 million | $63K |
| General and Operations Managers | 6,290 | 23% | 3 million | $99K |
| Bookkeeping, Accounting, and Auditing Clerks | 1,830 | 78% | 3 million | $48K |
| Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand | 14,960 | 9% | 2.8 million | $39K |
| First-Line Supervisors of Material-Moving Machine and Vehicle Operators | 2,387 | 51% | 2.5 million | $75K |
| First-Line Supervisors of Helpers, Laborers, and Material Movers, Hand | 2,387 | 44% | 2.2 million | $75K |
| Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive | 2,130 | 43% | 1.9 million | $43K |
People: BLS counts for this industry, May 2025. Pay here: the median paid for the job in this industry, else its mean, else the national median. 78 smaller jobs (10,640 people) count in every total but are not listed. Task data covers 99% of the industry's people; the rest are in BLS "all other" groups with no task list, or in counts BLS does not publish.
The tasks with the most hours within reach by the end of 2028
Across the whole industry, on the chosen pace and reliability.
- Organize schedules for refuse collection.Refuse and Recyclable Material Collectors5.4 million hours100% of the task within reach
- Maintain logs of working hours or of vehicle service or repair status, following applicable state and federal regulations.Heavy and Tractor-Trailer Truck Drivers3.7 million hours100% of the task within reach
- Record numbers of units handled or moved, using daily production sheets or work tickets.Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand2.1 million hours100% of the task within reach
- Compute, record, and proofread data and other information, such as records or reports.Office Clerks, General2 million hours100% of the task within reach
- Plan or adjust routes based on changing conditions, using computer equipment, global positioning systems (GPS) equipment, or other navigation devices, to minimize fuel consumption and carbon emissions.Heavy and Tractor-Trailer Truck Drivers1.9 million hours100% of the task within reach
- Develop sales presentations or proposals to explain service specifications.Sales Representatives of Services, Except Advertising, Insurance, Financial Services, and Travel1.8 million hours100% of the task within reach
- Prepare daily work and run schedules.Dispatchers, Except Police, Fire, and Ambulance1.7 million hours100% of the task within reach
- Check all load-related documentation for completeness and accuracy.Heavy and Tractor-Trailer Truck Drivers1.6 million hours100% of the task within reach
- Communicate with dispatchers concerning delays, unsafe sites, accidents, equipment breakdowns, or other maintenance problems.Refuse and Recyclable Material Collectors1.6 million hours100% of the task within reach
- Read and interpret maps to determine vehicle routes.Heavy and Tractor-Trailer Truck Drivers1.5 million hours100% of the task within reach
Scan a typical company in this industry
The industry's largest jobs, in the proportions BLS counts across the whole industry, at the pay it pays, run through the company scan. A starting point before you have a roster, or a benchmark for the one you have.
Next to this industry
Within reach now and by the end of 2028, long-run pace, four in five.
How it is built: BLS counts the people in each job in this industry; each job's tasks and their lengths give its share within reach at a date; the industry's share is those shares weighted by people. Value is pay times 1.43 for benefits and payroll costs. Seen in Claude use splits today's share by whether Anthropic saw people bring each task to Claude in 2025; other AI tools are not counted. How it works