AI exposure: Refuse and Recyclable Material Collectors
Collect and dump refuse or recyclable materials from containers into truck. May drive truck.
Reading this score
computedAt 16.7% of weighted task load, Refuse and Recyclable Material Collectors sits at the 28th percentile, below the point where a job's centre of gravity has moved. 71.0% of what this role does is untouched, meaning current systems cannot produce that work at all, whatever the commercial incentive.
What holds the line here is embodiment. Across this occupation's 14 tasks it averages 2.18 out of 3, the highest of the five friction dimensions. In plain terms, the work has to happen in physical space. A language model cannot move matter. Until the robotics to do this work is both good enough and cheap enough to deploy widely, capability in software does not reach it.
The most exposed thing this job does is Organize schedules for refuse collection, at 80.0%. The least is Make special pickups of recyclable materials, at 0.0%. A gap of 80.0% between two parts of the same job is the reason this index publishes at task level. An occupation-wide number would have hidden both.
Within transportation and material moving occupations, this one is less exposed than the median of 24.3% across the group's 52 roles, with 36 scoring higher. Being in an exposed family does not make a particular job exposed, and the reverse holds too.
What would move this score. Of 14 tasks, 4 are currently banded exposed, 1 assisted and 9 untouched. For that distribution to shift materially would take robotics cheap and reliable enough to deploy at scale, not a better language model. The score is re-computed every quarter against a fresh capability reference, and the change is published rather than quietly applied.
Where the score comes from
judgedEvery task is scored through the standardised work activities it maps to. These are this occupation’s averages on the six rubric dimensions. Capability is what AI can do; the other five are what stands in the way.
| Dimension | Mean | Scale |
|---|---|---|
| Capability | 1.29 | 0-4 |
| Embodiment | 2.18 | 0-3 |
| Presence | 0.54 | 0-3 |
| Accountability | 0.68 | 0-3 |
| Context | 1.18 | 0-3 |
| Verification cost | 1.18 | 0-3 |
Task by task
14 tasks, O*NET 31.0| Task | Exposed | Assisted | Untouched | Importance | Band |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Organize schedules for refuse collection. | 80.0% | 20.0% | 0.0% | 3.29 | exposed |
| Fill out defective equipment reports. | 45.0% | 30.0% | 25.0% | 4.27 | exposed |
| Tag garbage or recycling containers to inform customers of problems, such as excess garbage or inclusion of items that are not permitted. | 45.0% | 30.0% | 25.0% | 3.79 | exposed |
| Communicate with dispatchers concerning delays, unsafe sites, accidents, equipment breakdowns, or other maintenance problems. | 37.5% | 37.5% | 25.0% | 3.96 | assisted |
| Check road or weather conditions to determine how routes will be affected. | 26.7% | 23.3% | 50.0% | 3.81 | exposed |
| Operate equipment that compresses collected refuse. | 18.3% | 6.7% | 75.0% | 3.98 | untouched |
| Drive trucks, following established routes, through residential streets or alleys or through business or industrial areas. | 11.7% | 13.3% | 75.0% | 4.35 | untouched |
| Inspect trucks prior to beginning routes to ensure safe operating condition. | 10.0% | 15.0% | 75.0% | 4.53 | untouched |
| Refuel trucks or add other fluids, such as oil or brake fluid. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.33 | untouched |
| Dump refuse or recyclable materials at disposal sites. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.32 | untouched |
| Operate automated or semi-automated hoisting devices that raise refuse bins and dump contents into openings in truck bodies. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.05 | untouched |
| Dismount garbage trucks to collect garbage and remount trucks to ride to the next collection point. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.99 | untouched |
| Clean trucks or compactor bodies after routes have been completed. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.61 | untouched |
| Make special pickups of recyclable materials, such as food scraps, used oil, discarded computers, or other electronic items. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.37 | untouched |
Task text and importance ratings sourced from O*NET 31.0. Shares computed. The occupation score is the importance-weighted mean.
Occupations either side of this one
The four closest scores in the same occupational family, then the four closest anywhere in the index.
Read this carefully. Exposure is not displacement. A high score means current AI systems can produce this work, not that anyone will stop paying a person to do it. Adoption depends on economics, regulation and inertia that this index deliberately does not model. How the score is built.
What this means in practice
Most of this work is not reachable by current systems, so the immediate pressure is on the administrative edges of the role rather than its core: the scheduling, the reporting, the written records. That is where time is recovered.