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Elementary occupations · code 9612

Refuse sorters

Refuse sorters identify, collect and sort discarded items suitable for recycling at dump sites and recycling enterprises or in buildings, streets and other public places. Tasks include - (a) searching through refuse and collecting items for recycling from dump sites, domestic, commercial and industrial premises or from public places such as streets; (b) sorting cardboard, paper, glass, plastic, aluminium or other recyclable materials by type; (c) placing recyclable items and materials in designated compartments and containers for storage or transportation; (d) identifying and setting aside items of furniture, equipment, machinery, or components that are suitable for repair or re-use; (e) transporting recyclable items by hand or using non-motorized vehicles; (f) selling recyclable or reusable materials. Examples of the occupations classified here: - Recycling worker - Scrap merchant - Waste picker Some related occupations classified elsewhere: - Refuse collector - 9611 - Street sweeper - 9613

None of this job's tasks scored high enough to count. It ranks 118 of 427 for holding up against AI.

Also known as

  • recycling worker
  • sorter labourer

Job titles from the EU's ESCO list. Search for any of them on the jobs page and you'll end up here.

81.9
Holds up
against AI Not Exposed

AI could take on 18.1 of 100, on average
so it holds up at 100 − 18.1 = 81.9

That's the whole sum, and you can check it against the ILO's study.

67.8
How hands-on
out of 100

From O*NET, matched to one US job

29.7
How fiddly
and cramped

finger skill 30.3 · hand skill 37.4 · cramped spaces 21.5 · averaged

Kind of hands-on work · hands-on 50+ · fiddly under 39.4 Hands-on, less fiddly work

Less fine handwork and fewer cramped spaces than a typical hands-on job. That clears one hurdle for machines. It doesn't mean machines are doing this work yet.

estimated O*NET 31.0 BLS occupational crosswalk chain ISCO-08 to 2010 SOC (Aug 2012, rev. Jun 2015); 2010 to 2018 SOC (Nov 2017); O*NET-SOC 2019 taxonomy data 0.7-work-setting measures chosen by Frey & Osborne (2017) · the grouping is a sorting, not a measurement

This number is probably too high

This score only looks at AI tools like chatbots. It doesn't look at robots at all — and this job rates 67.8 out of 100 for how hands-on it is, which is exactly where robots come in.

Have a look at the tasks below and judge for yourself. The ILO scored them low because a chatbot can't do them. Whether a machine with hands could is a different question, and we can't answer it yet.

The tasks behind the score

The score is the average of these. A job is really a bundle of tasks, and an average can hide how uneven that bundle is.

The task AI could do most of scores 40.5, while the average is 18.1. A big gap means some of this job is wide open to AI and some of it barely at all. That's quite different from a job where everything sits somewhere in the middle, even when the averages match.

  1. 40.5

    Selling recyclable or reusable materials.

    Low
  2. 15.5

    Identifying and setting aside items of furniture, equipment, machinery or components that are suitable for repair or re-use

    Very Low
  3. 15

    Sorting cardboard, paper, glass, plastic, aluminium or other recyclable materials by type

    Very Low
  4. 15

    Placing recyclable items and materials in designated compartments and containers for storage or transportation

    Very Low
  5. 13.5

    Searching through refuse and collecting items for recycling from dump sites, domestic, commercial and industrial premises or from public places such as streets

    Very Low
  6. 9.3

    Transporting recyclable items by hand or using non-motorized vehicles

    Very Low

6 tasks · the High to Very Low labels are the ILO's

from the source Working Paper 140, Generative AI and Jobs 2025 index data 0.7-work-setting

Helped, or replaced?

The score above can't tell a tool that makes you faster from one that does the task instead of you. Jobs and Skills Australia looked at those two things separately, and this is their result, matched to this job.

2 Australian jobs match this one, and we've simply averaged them. Treat the numbers as a rough guide.

AI helps you
56
AI does it for you
36

Helping wins by 20 points.

estimated Our Gen AI Transition (Gen AI Capacity Study) September 2025 detailed data release data 0.7-work-setting matched to Australian jobs 6219, 8399

Compared with similar jobs

There are 33 jobs in the “Elementary occupations” group, averaging 85.1. This one is below that.