Recycling Coordinators
Agriculture, Food and Natural ResourcesO*NET 53-1042.01United States
Supervise curbside and drop-off recycling programs for municipal governments or private firms.
- Median annual earnings
- $62,769
- Projected change
- +7.5%
- Typical education
- High school diploma or less
- Employment
- 632.44K jobs
50th percentile, United States
2025 to 2035
47.1% of the workforce
Growing to 679.72K by 2035
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These courses and certificates are connected through catalog career relationships and Lightcast skill tags.
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The work
What recycling coordinators do
Tasks reported for this occupation, ordered by how often they come up in the role.
- Oversee recycling pick-up or drop-off programs to ensure compliance with community ordinances.
- Maintain logs of recycling materials received or shipped to processing companies.
- Supervise recycling technicians, community service workers, or other recycling operations employees or volunteers.
- Review customer requests for service to determine service needs and deploy appropriate resources to provide service.
- Provide training to recycling technicians or community service workers on topics such as safety, solid waste processing, or general recycling operations.
- Identify or investigate new opportunities for materials to be collected and recycled.
Pay and outlook
What the job pays and where it is heading
Annual earnings range
Reported earnings by percentile, United States
- 10th percentile
- $43,208
- 25th percentile
- $49,925
- 50th percentile
- $62,769
- 75th percentile
- $78,093
- 90th percentile
- $96,230
The gold marker shows the median. Half earn more than $62,769 and half earn less.
Employment outlook
2025 to 2035 projection
+7.5%faster than average
2025632,444 jobs
2035 projected679,724 jobs
47,280 more positions over the decade, before replacement hiring.
Preparation
Education levels
What people currently working in the career hold. These are not entry requirements.
- High school diploma or less
- 47.1%
- Bachelor's degree
- 30.1%
- Associate degree
- 22.8%
Skills
Skills employers ask for
Technical skills appearing most often in job postings for this occupation.
How the work gets done
Core competencies
Broad capabilities associated with strong performance in this occupation.
- Speaking
- Talking to others to convey information effectively.
- Management of Personnel Resources
- Motivating, developing, and directing people as they work, identifying the best people for the job.
- Time Management
- Managing one's own time and the time of others.
- Critical Thinking
- Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions, or approaches to problems.
- Coordination
- Adjusting actions in relation to others' actions.
- Active Listening
- Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.
- Reading Comprehension
- Understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work-related documents.
- Monitoring
- Monitoring/Assessing performance of yourself, other individuals, or organizations to make improvements or take corrective action.
- Judgment and Decision Making
- Considering the relative costs and benefits of potential actions to choose the most appropriate one.
- Social Perceptiveness
- Being aware of others' reactions and understanding why they react as they do.
- Persuasion
- Persuading others to change their minds or behavior.
- Active Learning
- Understanding the implications of new information for both current and future problem-solving and decision-making.
- Writing
- Communicating effectively in writing as appropriate for the needs of the audience.
- Learning Strategies
- Selecting and using training/instructional methods and procedures appropriate for the situation when learning or teaching new things.
- Service Orientation
- Actively looking for ways to help people.
- Complex Problem Solving
- Identifying complex problems and reviewing related information to develop and evaluate options and implement solutions.
- Instructing
- Teaching others how to do something.
- Systems Evaluation
- Identifying measures or indicators of system performance and the actions needed to improve or correct performance, relative to the goals of the system.
- Systems Analysis
- Determining how a system should work and how changes in conditions, operations, and the environment will affect outcomes.
- Negotiation
- Bringing others together and trying to reconcile differences.
In the market
Job titles and employers
Recent job postings in United StatesCommon job titles
- 01Wastewater Supervisors216 postings
- 02Solid Waste Managers140 postings
- 03Water/Wastewater Operators97 postings
- 04Coordinators96 postings
- 05Hazardous Waste Specialists86 postings
- 06Permit Coordinators86 postings
- 07Recycling Coordinators81 postings
- 08Solid Waste Supervisors77 postings
- 09Recycling Managers76 postings
- 10State Coordinators64 postings
- 11Waste Management Specialists56 postings
- 12Approvals Engineers55 postings
- 13Sustainability Associates53 postings
- 14Recycling Specialists48 postings
- 15Solid Waste Directors48 postings
- 16Sustainability Coordinators44 postings
- 17Recycling Sorters42 postings
- 18Solid Waste Coordinators40 postings
- 19Environmental Technicians39 postings
- 20Material Coordinators32 postings
Top employers
- 01Republic Services138 postings
- 02Waste Management128 postings
- 03Clean Harbors63 postings
- 04HDR54 postings
- 05Live Nation49 postings
- 06Communities Unlimited48 postings
- 07Jacobs Solutions42 postings
- 08GPAC31 postings
- 09TJX26 postings
- 10K-Va-T Food Stores22 postings
- 11CBRE21 postings
- 12Transdev16 postings
- 13City Of Laredo15 postings
- 14Clean Earth15 postings
- 15City Of San Diego14 postings
- 16Stericycle14 postings
- 17Advanced Chemical Transport13 postings
- 18City of Houston13 postings
- 19Aerotek12 postings
- 20City Of Corpus Christi12 postings
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