Garbage and recycling collectors
In the ILO's assessment few of the job's tasks can be done by generative AI, or the scores are too spread out to reach gradient 1 — generative AI does not meaningfully take over the core of the work.
Exposure is not job loss: it shows how much of the work generative AI could do today. Whether that turns into transformation, productivity gains or cuts depends on employers, regulation — and on you.
0 = today’s generative AI cannot perform any of the job’s tasks, 100 = it could do all of them fully. The pale band is the spread across tasks.
Work out your own score ↓What can you do?
The AI analysis for this occupation is still being prepared — the background process covers a few occupations every day.
Task by task
The ILO scored every task of the occupation separately, as the average of two AI models (GPT-4o and Gemini). The pale band is the range between the two models' scores, the dot the ILO's final score (for a few tasks expert review placed it outside the band).
- Riding on or in garbage and recycling trucks11
- Lifting garbage bins and emptying contents into trucks and larger containers10
- Unloading garbage and recycling trucks.8
- Collecting rubbish and recyclable materials and locating it into bins and garbage and recycling trucks8
How much does it affect you?
Every job is different: mark which of these tasks you do and how much, and we'll compute your own, time-weighted score.
For each task: I don't do it · sometimes · most of my job.
- Riding on or in garbage and recycling trucks(11)
- Lifting garbage bins and emptying contents into trucks and larger containers(10)
- Unloading garbage and recycling trucks.(8)
- Collecting rubbish and recyclable materials and locating it into bins and garbage and recycling trucks(8)
You are exactly at the occupation average. (The occupation's score: 9.)
About 0% of your working time goes to highly exposed tasks (score ≥ 50).
- • Riding on or in garbage and recycling trucks
- • Lifting garbage bins and emptying contents into trucks and larger containers
- • Collecting rubbish and recyclable materials and locating it into bins and garbage and recycling trucks
- • Unloading garbage and recycling trucks.
An estimate from the ILO task scores. Everything is computed in your browser — nothing is sent or stored.
How many people work in this occupational group?
Share of the Refuse workers and other elementary workers group in total employment, by country (Eurostat, ISCO 2-digit — 4-digit breakdowns are not public by country).
Table view
| Country | Refuse workers and other elementary workers |
|---|---|
| Estonia | 2.7% · 19 thousand · 2025 |
| Bulgaria | 2.5% · 73 thousand · 2025 |
| Latvia | 2.1% · 19 thousand · 2025 |
| Italy | 2.1% · 505 thousand · 2025 |
| Lithuania | 1.8% · 27 thousand · 2025 |
| Malta | 1.8% · 6 thousand · 2025 |
| Slovenia | 1.7% · 17 thousand · 2025 |
| Denmark | 1.5% · 45 thousand · 2025 |
| Romania | 1.4% · 110 thousand · 2025 |
| Portugal | 1.3% · 67 thousand · 2025 |
| Greece | 1.2% · 50 thousand · 2025 |
| Hungary | 1.1% · 51 thousand · 2025 |
| United Kingdom | 1.0% · 334 thousand · 2025 |
| Ireland | 1.0% · 27 thousand · 2025 |
| Slovakia | 0.9% · 23 thousand · 2025 |
| Cyprus | 0.9% · 4 thousand · 2025 |
| Spain | 0.8% · 184 thousand · 2025 |
| Belgium | 0.8% · 40 thousand · 2025 |
| France | 0.7% · 207 thousand · 2025 |
| Croatia | 0.6% · 11 thousand · 2025 |
| Czechia | 0.6% · 32 thousand · 2025 |
| Poland | 0.5% · 93 thousand · 2025 |
| Germany | 0.5% · 229 thousand · 2025 |
| Iceland | 0.5% · 1 thousand · 2025 |
| Austria | 0.5% · 21 thousand · 2025 |
| Finland | 0.4% · 11 thousand · 2025 |
| Norway | 0.4% · 12 thousand · 2025 |
| Sweden | 0.4% · 22 thousand · 2025 |
| Netherlands | 0.3% · 34 thousand · 2025 |
| Switzerland | 0.3% · 13 thousand · 2025 |
What do they earn?
Mean gross monthly earnings in the major occupational group (Elementary occupations). Eurostat's earnings survey only publishes pay by occupation at 1 digit, so this is the job's broader group. Enterprises with 10+ employees, 2022.
By country, at purchasing power parity (PPS/month), so countries with different price levels can be compared.
- Switzerland3,328
- Denmark2,741
- Iceland2,731
- Norway2,674
- Belgium2,613
- Ireland2,273
- Luxembourg2,269
- Sweden2,059
- Austria1,998
- Finland1,979
- Germany1,973
- Italy1,928
- France1,870
- EU271,835
- Netherlands1,710
- Spain1,658
- Slovenia1,626
- Malta1,498
- Poland1,413
- Greece1,378
- Lithuania1,349
- Cyprus1,331
- Romania1,288
- Croatia1,241
- Czechia1,218
- Estonia1,181
- Slovakia1,165
- Latvia1,119
- Portugal1,102
- Hungary1,057
- Bulgaria844
Source: Eurostat Structure of Earnings Survey (earn_ses22_21), every four years. The United Kingdom is not covered by the survey.
Outlook to 2035
Employment in the Refuse workers and other elementary workers group according to Cedefop's 2026 forecast.
thousand · Cedefop Skills Forecast 2026 · 2026–2035: projection
Replacement demand is the jobs left by people retiring or changing careers — even a shrinking occupation can have many openings.
Related occupations
Sources: ILO WP140 (2025) · Eurostat lfsa_egai2d · Cedefop Skills Forecast 2026 · WEF Future of Jobs 2025 · ESCO. The exposure score measures how much of an occupation's tasks generative AI could perform — not whether the job disappears. For information only, not career advice. How do we calculate this?