How To Become A Recycling Center Operator: What It Is and Career Path

What is a recycling center operator and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a recycling center operator. For example, did you know that they make an average of $16.71 an hour? That's $34,758 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 7% and produce 56,900 job opportunities across the U.S.

ScoreRecycling Center OperatorUS Average

Salary

2.7

Avg. Salary $34,758

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

8.8

Growth rate 7%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

6.2

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.92%

Asian 5.61%

Black or African American 12.31%

Hispanic or Latino 24.36%

Unknown 5.11%

White 51.68%

Gender

female 22.44%

male 77.56%

Age - 44

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 44

Stress level

8.8

Stress level is very high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

8.1

Complexity level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work life balance

4.6

Work life balance is fair

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a recycling center operator

Explore recycling center operator education requirements

Most common recycling center operator degrees

Bachelor's

34.2 %

Associate

27.5 %

High School Diploma

26.4 %

Start to develop specific recycling center operator skills

Skills	Percentages
Security Operations	21.25%
Incident Reports	12.02%
Emergency Situations	10.78%
CCTV	10.28%
Law Enforcement	6.82%

Complete relevant recycling center operator training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 1-3 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New recycling center operators learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a recycling center operator based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real recycling center operator resumes.

Research recycling center operator duties and responsibilities

Interpret and respond to system messages through use of JES2, MVS, SDSF and automate commands.
Maintain settings on CCTV and access control systems.
Train other operators and supervisor in Visio and PowerPoint.
Provide day-to-day monitoring/support of mission critical application using UNIX commands and communication of any issues that may occur.

Prepare your recycling center operator resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your recycling center operator resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a recycling center operator resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable recycling center operator resume templates

Build a professional recycling center operator resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your recycling center operator resume.