Recycling and Reclamation Workers
In short: today's best AI models could do about 1% of this job's working time (projected from METR's April 2026 measurement and Epoch's November 2026 index) if the work were set up for them, and about the same by the end of 2028 if progress keeps its long-run pace. The people and hands-on work, about 99% of the time, stays with people.
Prepare and sort materials or products for recycling. Identify and remove hazardous substances. Dismantle components of products such as appliances.
$40,240 a year (for the broader BLS group this job sits in).
A typical 40-hour week
Not yet reviewed task by task- AI could take on1 h
- A person checks AI's work0 h
- Desk work AI can't do yet0 h
- Stays with people39 h
Recycling and Reclamation Workers, now: of a 40-hour week, AI could take on 1 hours, 0 hours become checking its work, 0 hours are desk work it can't do yet, and 39 hours stay with people.
The largest pieces: Record logs of recycled materials or waste chemicals removed from products (under an hour).
Estimates for a typical week of this job, if progress keeps its long-run pace, counting work the best models finish four times in five. Every task is below.
of the working time. Now is projected from METR's April 2026 measurement and Epoch's November 2026 index.
- 1%
- 0%
- 99%
of the work: Anthropic's measure of what people already bring to Claude at work (2025). It counts help with part of a task, so it can be higher than the share within reach.
On the chosen pace and reliability. Estimate.
Share of the working time within reach, now to 2030
Change assumptionsHide assumptionsLong-run pace, four in five
What each choice means: , , , , . Every pace starts from .
At this date and pace, models finish tasks up to 2.4 work days long four times in five.
How far this has come
With GPT-4, measured in March 2023, 0% of this job's working time was within reach at . With Claude 3.7 Sonnet, measured in February 2025, 0%. With Claude Mythos Preview (early), measured in April 2026, 1%. Today's estimate: 1%.
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.
Measured use over time
None of this job's 14 tasks showed up in the Claude.ai conversations Anthropic sampled in any of its 7 releases, from February 2025 to May 2026.
Measured, not estimated: Anthropic's samples of Claude.ai conversations, each tied by a model to an O*NET task, from the Anthropic Economic Index. It says where Claude's use goes, not how much of this job's working time it covers, so it is not on the same scale as the reach above. The releases differ in their sample, their classifier and the smallest share they report (the June 2026 file rounds each task to a hundredth of a percent, so a smaller task reads as none), which is why a change of method starts a new line. At least 96% of each older release's task-tied use matched this site's tasks, and all of the newest. Claude.ai only, so use through other tools and other companies' models is not in it. Every job ranked.
Robots and the physical work
Anthropic rates 97% of this job's working time as physical work. For 92% of the working time, a robot has been shown doing most of the task somewhere: 17% in a purpose-built cell, 76% in a structured facility. 1.68 of 3, the 11th highest of the 923 jobs.
- Not physical 3%
- No robot shown 5%
- In a purpose-built cell 17%
- In a structured facility 76%
Anthropic's rating, not this site's estimate: Claude Opus 5, searching the web, rated each physical O*NET task by the kind of setting in which a robot it could cite (deployed, sold or demonstrated) does most of the task, weighted by its own estimate of each task's share of the time (What work can robots do?, September 30, 2026, data CC BY 4.0; every job ranked). A robot shown somewhere is not a robot in your building: cost, setup and safety decide that. The share within reach on this page still counts no body work. The robot behind each rated task is under the task below.
The tasks
Sorted by . 14 tasks from .
| Task | Kind | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Operate automated refuse or manual recycling collection vehicles.Done daily by most who do it.Robots: in a purpose-built cell, McNeilus CartSeeker curbside automation (Oshkosh) on Zero Radius Automated Side Loader (sold). Anthropic's rating. | 20% | 3.3 h1.7 h to 6.7 h | Stays with people | |
| Operate forklifts, pallet jacks, power lifts, or front-end loaders to load bales, bundles, or other heavy items onto trucks for shipping to smelters or other recycled materials processing facilities.Done daily by most who do it. Robots: in a structured facility, FoxBot Mk3 autonomous trailer loader/unloader (ATL) (sold). Anthropic's rating. | 14% | 38 min17 min to 1.4 h | Stays with people | |
| Sort metals to separate high-grade metals, such as copper, brass, and aluminum, for recycling.Done daily by most who do it. Robots: in a structured facility, AMP Delta (AMP Smart Sortation) (sold). Anthropic's rating. | 12% | 50 min25 min to 1.7 h | Stays with people | |
| Operate processing equipment, such as fiber-sorters and grinders, to sort, crush, or grind recyclable materials.Done daily by most who do it.Robots: in a structured facility, AMP ONE (AMP / Amp Sortation) (deployed). Anthropic's rating. | 9% | 50 min17 min to 1.7 h | Stays with people | |
| Sort materials, such as metals, glass, wood, paper or plastics, into appropriate containers for recycling.Done daily by most who do it. Robots: in a structured facility, AMP Cortex (sold). Anthropic's rating. | 8% | 38 min17 min to 1.3 h | Stays with people | |
| Clean recycling yard by sweeping, raking, picking up broken glass and loose paper debris, or moving barrels and bins.Done daily by most who do it. Robots: in a structured facility, Trombia Free autonomous sweeper (deployed). Anthropic's rating. | 8% | 38 min13 min to 1.7 h | Stays with people | |
| Operate balers to compress recyclable materials into bundles or bales.Done daily by most who do it.Robots: in a purpose-built cell, Bollegraaf HBC140 / HBC120 fully automatic prepress balers (deployed). Anthropic's rating. | 6% | 25 min13 min to 50 min | Stays with people | |
| Collect recyclable materials from curbside for delivery to designated facilities.Done daily by most who do it.Robots: in a purpose-built cell, McNeilus CartSeeker Curbside Automation (Zero Radius automated side loader) (sold). Anthropic's rating. | 5% | 3.3 h1.7 h to 6.7 h | Stays with people | |
| Clean materials, such as metals, according to recycling requirements.Done more than weekly by most who do it.Robots: in a purpose-built cell, ZenRobotics Heavy Picker (deployed). Anthropic's rating. | 4% | 38 min17 min to 1.3 h | Stays with people | |
| Deposit recoverable materials into chutes or place materials on conveyor belts.Done daily by most who do it.Robots: in a structured facility, AMP Cortex (Amp Sortation / AMP Robotics) (deployed). Anthropic's rating. | 4% | 17 min8 min to 50 min | Stays with people | |
| Clean, inspect, or lubricate recyclable collection equipment or perform routine maintenance or minor repairs on recycling equipment, such as star gears, finger sorters, destoners, belts, and grinders.Done daily by most who do it. Robots: no robot shown. Anthropic's rating. | 4% | 38 min17 min to 1.3 h | Stays with people | |
| Extract chemicals from discarded appliances, such as air conditioners or refrigerators, using specialized machinery, such as refrigerant recovery equipment.Done daily by most who do it.Robots: in a purpose-built cell, ATN automatic degassing system (patented drill head), ATN Engineering B.V. / ANDRITZ Group (sold). Anthropic's rating. | 2% | 1.1 h25 min to 2.1 h | Stays with people |
Within reach, per task: the share of the task's time whose instances are short enough for a model to finish at the chosen date, pace and reliability. Half by: the date half of that time comes within reach.
Jobs that share skills with this one
From O*NET's related occupations. Within reach now and by the end of 2028, long-run pace, four in five.
- Recycling Coordinators52% now, 82% by 2028
- Hazardous Materials Removal Workers2% now, 3% by 2028
- Refuse and Recyclable Material Collectors5% now, 5% by 2028
- Packaging and Filling Machine Operators and Tenders1% now, 1% by 2028
- Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand9% now, 9% by 2028
- Cleaners of Vehicles and Equipment1% now, 1% by 2028
Where this job works
The industry groups that employ the most of it (BLS, May 2025). Counts are for the broader BLS group this job sits in.
Where the most of these jobs are
The metro areas with the most people in it (BLS, May 2025). Counts are for the broader BLS group this job sits in.
Questions about this job
- How much of the work of Recycling and Reclamation Workers is within reach of AI now?
- An estimated 1% of the working time is within reach of AI models now and 1% by the end of 2028, on METR's long-run pace at four in five. Within reach means a model could finish work that long at that reliability. It is not a forecast of jobs lost or of savings.
- Which tasks of Recycling and Reclamation Workers come within reach first?
- Weighted by the time each takes, the tasks with the most within reach now (projected from METR's April 2026 measurement and Epoch's November 2026 index) are: Record logs of recycled materials or waste chemicals removed from products (100% of the task's time now).
- Which tasks of Recycling and Reclamation Workers stay with people?
- Tasks that are people work or body work are not counted as within reach at any date. The largest: Operate automated refuse or manual recycling collection vehicles; Operate forklifts, pallet jacks, power lifts, or front-end loaders to load bales, bundles, or other heavy items onto trucks for shipping to smelters or other recycled materials processing facilities; and Sort metals to separate high-grade metals, such as copper, brass, and aluminum, for recycling. Together such tasks are about 99% of the working time.
- Do people already use AI for the work of Recycling and Reclamation Workers?
- In the Claude.ai conversations Anthropic sampled for May 2026, no reportable share went to this job's tasks. Anthropic's labor market measure puts the share of the job's tasks seen in real Claude use at work at 0%. These are measures of use, not of how much of the work AI could finish, and they cover Claude only.
- Can robots do the physical work of Recycling and Reclamation Workers?
- Anthropic's robot exposure rating (September 2026) finds 97% of the working time is physical work, and that a robot has been shown doing most of the task, somewhere, for 92% of the working time, 76% in a structured facility. Its index is 1.68 of 3. One example: FoxBot Mk3 autonomous trailer loader/unloader (ATL) for "operate forklifts, pallet jacks, power lifts, or front-end loaders to load bales, bundles, or other heavy items onto trucks for shipping to smelters or other recycled materials processing facilities". A robot shown somewhere is not one in every workplace; this site's own estimates still count no physical work as within reach.
- How is this estimated?
- From the 14 tasks O*NET lists for the occupation, each with an estimated length checked against GDPval and a share of the working time, each classed as desk, people or body work, and METR's measurements of how long a task the best AI models can finish, carried forward to the date from the latest, Claude Mythos Preview (early) in April 2026. Data checked November 10, 2026.
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