How to become a Recycling Processing Worker
Official Chinese title (2022 occupational classification): 再生物资加工处理工
Also called: Scrap Metal Processing Worker
Uses sorting, dismantling and other tools and equipment to process recovered waste and turn it into resources that can be used again.
Main tasks
- Checking incoming material with tools and picking out impurities and hazardous items
- Logging and labelling the set products to be processed
- Taking recovered products apart with tools and equipment and picking out parts that can be remanufactured
- Running specialist equipment to crush, sort and separate out raw materials of different kinds
- Running specialist equipment to bale, shred, pelletise and otherwise process material
- Treating and recovering waste water, waste oil, waste acid and so on from processing so they do not pollute the environment again
- Fixing equipment faults and maintaining processing equipment
AI and this job
- Generative AI can do relatively little of this work, by the ILO's global estimate.
Who does this work
- The census group Renewable Resources Recycling Workers holds 0.04% of everyone employed in China; 28.4% of its workers are women (2020 Census).
- 18.2% are under 35, 57% are 35 to 54 and 24.8% are 55 or older. The middle age band is 45 to 49.
- Census figures for the whole mid group (2020 long-form sample), not for this job alone.
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Questions people ask
Will AI change the work of a Recycling Processing Worker?
Generative AI can do relatively little of this work, by the ILO's global estimate.
Sources
- National Bureau of Statistics of China: China Population Census Yearbook 2020, long-form tables 4-6 and 4-7 (employed by occupation mid group, sex, age) (2020 Census long form (10% sample)), retrieved 4 October 2026
- International Labour Organization, Generative AI and Jobs: A Refined Global Index of Occupational Exposure (ILO Working Paper 140, Gmyrek et al.) (ILO Working Paper 140, May 2025, Annex Table A1), CC BY 4.0, retrieved 4 October 2026
- Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, State Administration for Market Regulation, National Bureau of Statistics: Occupational Classification of the People's Republic of China, 2022 edition (public consultation draft) (2022 public consultation draft (1,636 occupations; final edition 1,639)), retrieved 4 October 2026
Sources: Occupational Classification of the People's Republic of China (2022 edition, public consultation draft), Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, State Administration for Market Regulation and National Bureau of Statistics; Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, 2025 enterprise pay survey information; Guangzhou Human Resources and Social Security Bureau, 2025 labour market wage prices; National Bureau of Statistics of China (www.stats.gov.cn), 2020 Population Census yearbook; Ministry of Education, vocational education major profiles (2022 revision) and undergraduate major catalogue (2025); Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, national vocational qualifications catalogue (2021); O*NET interest scores (CC BY 4.0); ILO global generative AI exposure index (CC BY 4.0). Figures processed by Peernovo. English text, translations and the matching of occupations to ISCO-08, majors, degree fields and qualifications by Peernovo.
Descriptions and tasks are Peernovo's own words, written from the facts in the Occupational Classification of the People's Republic of China (2022 edition). Job titles and work types are the classification's own.
Updated 4 October 2026