Job Check
Hazardous Materials Removal Workers
Identify, remove, pack, transport, or dispose of hazardous materials, including asbestos, lead-based paint, waste oil, fuel, transmission fluid, radioactive materials, or contaminated soil. Specialized training and certification in hazardous materials handling or a confined entry permit are generally required. May operate earth-moving equipment or trucks.
10 main tasks · most important first
Your main tasks and AI
Importance- 01Remove asbestos or lead from surfaces, using hand or power tools such as scrapers, vacuums, or high-pressure sprayers.Mostly human for now
- 02Build containment areas prior to beginning abatement or decontamination work.Mostly human for now
- 03Prepare hazardous material for removal or storage.Mostly human for now
- 04Comply with prescribed safety procedures or federal laws regulating waste disposal methods.Mostly human for now
- 05Record numbers of containers stored at disposal sites, specifying amounts or types of equipment or waste disposed.AI could speed this up a lot
- 06Clean contaminated equipment or areas for reuse, using detergents or solvents, sandblasters, filter pumps, or steam cleaners.Mostly human for now
- 07Clean mold-contaminated sites by removing damaged porous materials or thoroughly cleaning all contaminated nonporous materials.Mostly human for now
- 08Operate machines or equipment to remove, package, store, or transport loads of waste materials.Mostly human for now
- 09Load or unload materials into containers or onto trucks, using hoists or forklifts.Mostly human for now
- 10Sort specialized hazardous waste at landfills or disposal centers, following proper disposal procedures.Mostly human for now
Tasks from O*NET® 31.0 (US Department of Labor, CC BY 4.0, changed by us), most important first. “Already use” comes from Anthropic’s data on real work chats with Claude; “could speed up” from task ratings made with GPT-4 in 2023.
Four studies, side by side
None is a forecast of job lossToo little dataNot enough work use was seen to measure. This does not mean the job is safe from AI.Anthropic, 2026
8%of this job’s tasks an AI model could do in half the time, counting tasks that need extra tools as half (rated in 2023).Eloundou, Manning, Mishkin and Rock, 2023
Above 3% of jobsin how often and how well AI helped with this job’s work in Microsoft Copilot chats (2024 data).Microsoft Research (Tomlinson et al.), 2025
Above 73% of jobsin how much of this job’s physical work robots have been shown to do, from factories to homes (2026).Anthropic, 2026
Your human edge
The main tasks with no real AI use seen and no big speed-up expected. This is where your skill counts most today.
- Remove asbestos or lead from surfaces, using hand or power tools such as scrapers, vacuums, or high-pressure sprayers.
- Build containment areas prior to beginning abatement or decontamination work.
- Prepare hazardous material for removal or storage.