OPINION: The skills crisis in the sector starts with a reputation problem. Ask a school leaver what a career in waste looks like and the answer is likely to include bins, lorries and landfill. The reality, however, is very different. Modern materials recovery facilities are among the most high-tech industrial environments around, using AI-powered optical sorters and robots. Career opportunities now go far beyond working on the bins, instead involving data science, engineering, environmental management and circular economy consultancy. Unfortunately, the opportunities that exist and diversity of roles is simply not reaching the people the sector needs to recruit.
CIWM’s Beyond Waste report forecasts that the sector will need more than 74,200 new roles by 2030, rising to 240,000 by 2040. Yet 60% of companies questioned said they had struggled to recruit in the past year. That puts the sector’s £24 billion ambitions at risk. Not to mention the £15 billion of investment in recycling and recovery infrastructure, and new government plans such as Simpler Recycling and packaging EPR to drive demand in an industry for more people that it can’t currently find.
“Standard recruitment adverts are no longer fit for purpose,” says Maggie Morrissey, PR and content director at Lesniak Swann. “The problem is that young people have a preconceived idea of the sector, so they are unlikely to respond to an advert in the first place. Changing beliefs sits clearly within marketing, where we can use social media, PR, content and events, all working together through a coordinated strategy, to reach young audiences in ways traditional recruitment ads can’t.”
The sector’s own professional body agrees. CIWM president Vicki Hughes launched her year-long ‘Think Again’ campaign in June after research found the sector lacks visibility in the jobs market. Its pledge asks employers to rethink the language they use, talk about the careers on offer and reach audiences beyond the industry’s traditional networks. That is a marketing brief in all but name, and it puts the onus on individual companies to invest in telling their own story.
The good news is that some already are. Veolia’s #WeAreResourcers employer brand campaign reframed the industry around seeing value where others see waste. It put real employees at the centre of the storytelling and ran through a range of dedicated social channels.
Biffa applied similar thinking at a more tactical level. It centralised the recruitment marketing for its maintenance engineering apprenticeships by promoting its sustainability credentials through the channels young people use. This approach generated more than 400 applications for ten places and a markedly more diverse candidate pool.
Other sectors have proved the same at scale. The Royal Academy of Engineering’s ‘This is Engineering’ campaign showed young engineers working in sport, fashion and robotics, generated more than 69 million video views and encouraged 1.45 million teenagers to consider engineering as a career.
‘Generation Logistics’ is the closest parallel: government and industry pooled their marketing budgets to reposition logistics as a modern, technology-driven career, generating 2.9 million social media engagements among 16- to 25-year-olds and working with schools to reach the careers advisors and teachers who influence choices. Think Again gives the waste sector the platform to do the same – if companies put marketing spend behind it.
The opportunity extends beyond the careers available with waste and recycling operators. The entire supply chain – sorting technology manufacturers, maintenance specialists, software providers – offers equally skilled careers, and has the same visibility problem.
That is where marketing can play a much bigger role than simply posting job ads. Done well, it can reframe how the sector is understood as a route into climate action, technology, engineering, data, design and commercial innovation. It can put the people already doing those jobs in front of the audiences who have never seen themselves in the industry before, and show the purpose, progression and variety the careers offer.
For younger audiences especially, perception is shaped long before they start looking and applying for jobs. They are comparing waste and resources with sectors that already know how to sell themselves such as tech, energy, engineering, media and the wider green economy. If the sector wants to compete for that talent, it needs to speak in the same places and in the same language – using social content, PR, employer branding, schools engagement and real-life storytelling to make the work visible but also relevant and desirable.
The skills gap will only start to close when the next generation sees the sector differently and believes it offers careers with purpose, technology, progression and impact. That’s as much a marketing challenge as it is a recruitment one. The companies that invest in changing perceptions now will be the ones best placed to attract the talent they need to grow.
Important topic, and the Veolia and Biffa examples show what marketing can achieve when a company has the brand, budget and modern operation to back it up.
But those are the exceptions. Most of the sector is made up of small, often family-run businesses, and for them marketing is only half the story. The bigger challenge is retention. Many owners’ children grew up in the business, know it well, and don’t want to take it on because it feels dated, unmodernised and stuck in its ways. Even the best campaign will struggle to keep young people in a business that hasn’t changed.
For most of the industry, this is a change problem before it’s a marketing problem: change in mindset, and change in the tools and technology used. AI and modern software have levelled the field. Capabilities once reserved for the biggest operators are now within reach of a ten-person firm, if someone is willing to see it and make it happen. We see this daily in conversations about digital waste tracking, which is still viewed as a burden rather than an opportunity to modernise.
Marketing can get young people through the door. Transformation, driven from within, is what makes them want to stay and eventually take over.