How to become Recycling and Reclamation Worker in 2024

Recycling and Reclamation Worker Prepare and sort materials or products for recycling. Identify and remove hazardous substances. Dismantle components of products such as appliances.

Recycling and Reclamation Worker is Also Know as

In different settings, Recycling and Reclamation Worker is titled as

  • Bobcat Driver
  • Box Sorter
  • Convenience Recycle Center Technician (Convenience Recycle Center Tech)
  • Deconstruction and Decontamination Waste Operations Specialist (D and D Waste Operations Specialist)
  • Non-Ferrous Material Handler
  • Sort Line Worker
  • Sorter
  • Transfer Station Operator

Education and Training of Recycling and Reclamation Worker

Recycling and Reclamation Worker is categorized in Job Zone Two: Some Preparation Needed

Experience Required for Recycling and Reclamation Worker

Some previous work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is usually needed. For example, a teller would benefit from experience working directly with the public.

Education Required for Recycling and Reclamation Worker

These occupations usually require a high school diploma.

Degrees Related to Recycling and Reclamation Worker

Training Required for Recycling and Reclamation Worker

Employees in these occupations need anywhere from a few months to one year of working with experienced employees. A recognized apprenticeship program may be associated with these occupations.

Related Ocuupations

Some Ocuupations related to Recycling and Reclamation Worker in different industries are

What Do Recycling and Reclamation Worker do?

  • Cut discarded products, such as appliances and automobiles, into small pieces using saws, blow torches, or other hand or power tools.
  • Extract chemicals from discarded appliances, such as air conditioners or refrigerators, using specialized machinery, such as refrigerant recovery equipment.
  • Sort materials, such as metals, glass, wood, paper or plastics, into appropriate containers for recycling.
  • Collect recyclable materials from curbside for delivery to designated facilities.
  • Deposit recoverable materials into chutes or place materials on conveyor belts.
  • Dismantle wrecked vehicles by removing parts and labeling and sorting parts into containers.
  • Operate automated refuse or manual recycling collection vehicles.
  • Operate balers to compress recyclable materials into bundles or bales.
  • 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.
  • Operate processing equipment, such as fiber-sorters and grinders, to sort, crush, or grind recyclable materials.
  • Operate shredders to reclaim steel from discarded appliances.
  • Record logs of recycled materials or waste chemicals removed from products.
  • Sort metals to separate high-grade metals, such as copper, brass, and aluminum, for recycling.
  • Clean materials, such as metals, according to recycling requirements.
  • Clean recycling yard by sweeping, raking, picking up broken glass and loose paper debris, or moving barrels and bins.
  • Collect and sort recyclable construction materials, such as concrete, drywall, plastics, or wood, into containers.
  • 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.
  • Remove copper from circuit boards.

Qualities of Good Recycling and Reclamation Worker

  • Manual Dexterity: The ability to quickly move your hand, your hand together with your arm, or your two hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble objects.
  • Control Precision: The ability to quickly and repeatedly adjust the controls of a machine or a vehicle to exact positions.
  • Arm-Hand Steadiness: The ability to keep your hand and arm steady while moving your arm or while holding your arm and hand in one position.
  • Multilimb Coordination: The ability to coordinate two or more limbs (for example, two arms, two legs, or one leg and one arm) while sitting, standing, or lying down. It does not involve performing the activities while the whole body is in motion.
  • Near Vision: The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
  • Finger Dexterity: The ability to make precisely coordinated movements of the fingers of one or both hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble very small objects.
  • Category Flexibility: The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways.
  • Trunk Strength: The ability to use your abdominal and lower back muscles to support part of the body repeatedly or continuously over time without "giving out" or fatiguing.
  • Oral Comprehension: The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
  • Selective Attention: The ability to concentrate on a task over a period of time without being distracted.
  • Rate Control: The ability to time your movements or the movement of a piece of equipment in anticipation of changes in the speed and/or direction of a moving object or scene.
  • Perceptual Speed: The ability to quickly and accurately compare similarities and differences among sets of letters, numbers, objects, pictures, or patterns. The things to be compared may be presented at the same time or one after the other. This ability also includes comparing a presented object with a remembered object.
  • Flexibility of Closure: The ability to identify or detect a known pattern (a figure, object, word, or sound) that is hidden in other distracting material.
  • Reaction Time: The ability to quickly respond (with the hand, finger, or foot) to a signal (sound, light, picture) when it appears.
  • Information Ordering: The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
  • Oral Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
  • Speed of Limb Movement: The ability to quickly move the arms and legs.
  • Far Vision: The ability to see details at a distance.
  • Depth Perception: The ability to judge which of several objects is closer or farther away from you, or to judge the distance between you and an object.
  • Static Strength: The ability to exert maximum muscle force to lift, push, pull, or carry objects.
  • Response Orientation: The ability to choose quickly between two or more movements in response to two or more different signals (lights, sounds, pictures). It includes the speed with which the correct response is started with the hand, foot, or other body part.
  • Problem Sensitivity: The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing that there is a problem.
  • Visual Color Discrimination: The ability to match or detect differences between colors, including shades of color and brightness.
  • Speech Recognition: The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
  • Speech Clarity: The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
  • Written Comprehension: The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
  • Written Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
  • Deductive Reasoning: The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
  • Wrist-Finger Speed: The ability to make fast, simple, repeated movements of the fingers, hands, and wrists.
  • Inductive Reasoning: The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
  • Time Sharing: The ability to shift back and forth between two or more activities or sources of information (such as speech, sounds, touch, or other sources).
  • Extent Flexibility: The ability to bend, stretch, twist, or reach with your body, arms, and/or legs.
  • Stamina: The ability to exert yourself physically over long periods of time without getting winded or out of breath.
  • Gross Body Coordination: The ability to coordinate the movement of your arms, legs, and torso together when the whole body is in motion.
  • Visualization: The ability to imagine how something will look after it is moved around or when its parts are moved or rearranged.
  • Auditory Attention: The ability to focus on a single source of sound in the presence of other distracting sounds.
  • Hearing Sensitivity: The ability to detect or tell the differences between sounds that vary in pitch and loudness.
  • Speed of Closure: The ability to quickly make sense of, combine, and organize information into meaningful patterns.
  • Dynamic Strength: The ability to exert muscle force repeatedly or continuously over time. This involves muscular endurance and resistance to muscle fatigue.
  • Gross Body Equilibrium: The ability to keep or regain your body balance or stay upright when in an unstable position.
  • Peripheral Vision: The ability to see objects or movement of objects to one's side when the eyes are looking ahead.
  • Fluency of Ideas: The ability to come up with a number of ideas about a topic (the number of ideas is important, not their quality, correctness, or creativity).
  • Spatial Orientation: The ability to know your location in relation to the environment or to know where other objects are in relation to you.
  • Memorization: The ability to remember information such as words, numbers, pictures, and procedures.
  • Originality: The ability to come up with unusual or clever ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem.
  • Night Vision: The ability to see under low-light conditions.
  • Glare Sensitivity: The ability to see objects in the presence of a glare or bright lighting.
  • Number Facility: The ability to add, subtract, multiply, or divide quickly and correctly.
  • Mathematical Reasoning: The ability to choose the right mathematical methods or formulas to solve a problem.
  • Sound Localization: The ability to tell the direction from which a sound originated.
  • Dynamic Flexibility: The ability to quickly and repeatedly bend, stretch, twist, or reach out with your body, arms, and/or legs.
  • Explosive Strength: The ability to use short bursts of muscle force to propel oneself (as in jumping or sprinting), or to throw an object.

Tools Used by Recycling and Reclamation Worker

  • Adjustable hand wrenches
  • Belt conveyor systems
  • Blow torches
  • Cardboard balers
  • Channel lock pliers
  • Claw hammers
  • Cordless drills
  • Crushing machines
  • Desktop computers
  • Extension ladders
  • Fiber sorters
  • Forklifts
  • Grinders
  • Handheld calculators
  • Hex wrenches
  • Horizontal balers
  • Laser facsimile machines
  • Magnetized can sorters
  • Material compactors
  • Material hoists
  • Mobile radios
  • Multi-line telephone systems
  • Pallet jacks
  • Paper shredders
  • Personal computers
  • Phillips head screwdrivers
  • Photocopying equipment
  • Power lifts
  • Power saws
  • Protective ear muffs
  • Recycling collection trucks
  • Refrigerant reclamation equipment
  • Safety glasses
  • Skid steer loaders
  • Straight screwdrivers
  • Tractor-trailer trucks
  • Utility knives
  • Utility work machines
  • Wheeled front end loaders
  • Wire cutters
  • Work vans

Technology Skills required for Recycling and Reclamation Worker

  • Microsoft Excel
  • Microsoft Office software
  • Microsoft Word
  • Work scheduling software