Job creation in the recycling industry
One of the industries that generates the greatest demand for employment in the United States is undoubtedly recycling. Plastic recycling alone accounted for 1,003 jobs in 2020. Globally, the entire industrial mass involved in recycling can generate tens of thousands of jobs.
In Latin America, this industry has also driven a significant employment boom; from the shipment and logistics of solid waste, to its reuse. More importantly, the largest number of employees come from low socioeconomic strata, which translates into huge life improvements for sectors of great need.
“The waste and recycling sector can develop by creating 450,000 stable jobs”
The recycling economy is creating and energizing a fairly broad labor field, with innovative technological development and the generation of jobs and quality wages for the benefit of millions of families in the world.
In this sense, the recycling industry is not only decreasing the amount of waste in landfills or the emission of greenhouse gases, but is also creating more and more opportunities and occupations, strengthening economic and social development in communities.
Recycling as a source of employment in Colombia
The growth experienced by the recycling industry in recent years has generated multiple impacts. In addition to the social and environmental benefits, recycling has brought interesting economic benefits through the creation of various sources of employment.
Thanks to the transition that several countries in Latin America are experiencing, from a model based on collection, transport and final disposal, to a circular economy model, the region would be benefiting from more than 10 million new jobs.
In this sense, Colombia has taken important steps to make this transition, where waste pickers play a very important role.
First, making institutional decisions such as the implementation since 2018 of the Green Growth Policy, with five lines of action carried out in 14 entities of the country and an estimated investment of 2.3 trillion pesos.
Secondly, the design of a National Circular Economy Strategy ENEC by the Ministry of Environment and the Ministry of Commerce, to improve efficiency in the use of resources and the circular use of materials in production processes.
The agreed goals for 2030 involve increasing the recycling rate and reducing waste generation, so it is expected that according to the projected volume of 3.2 million tons will be reached to date, and an increase of almost 18% in the recycling rate, which could generate between 1,800 and 14,800 new jobs.
These decisions undoubtedly reinforce Decree 596 of 2016, which regulates the process so that waste pickers formalize and can be included as providers of the public cleaning service.
Main sources of employment in the paper recycling industry
There are many sources of employment linked to paper recycling, such as those related to manufacturing companies that take recycled paper and cardboard and turn them into new products.
There is a wide range of products that can be manufactured with recycled materials, such as the manufacture of boxes and packaging material, the manufacture of cardboard tubes for toilet paper or kitchen paper, among others. Similarly, recycled cardboard can be used for wall and ceiling cladding, the manufacture of bags and wrapping paper.
Each of these products opens a wide range of new job opportunities, such as production, marketing, accounting, human resources, sales, engineering, among other aspects.
Recycling facilities in turn collect, sort and process recycled materials, which demands various jobs including sorters, tractor drivers and managers to oversee the process. The collection work also generates job opportunities for truck drivers and collectors designated for each municipality in the country.
Solid waste management is a highly mechanized process that is performed with limited investment in labor, while recycling can be much more intensive in the demand for personnel, due to its well-differentiated processes in collection, sorting and processing, as well as other support functions for facilities, logistics and sales, where skilled and semi-skilled employees are always required to perform the jobs demanded by the industry.
As you can see, recycling not only does great things for the environment, but also helps improve the economics of different industries and generates a wide variety of jobs.