The Datum Report

Occupation 1254 · Managers, directors and senior officials

Waste disposal and environmental services managers

Half of full-time waste disposal and environmental services managers in the UK earn more than £49,763 a year, and half earn less.

Waste disposal and environmental services managers plan, organise, direct and co-ordinate the operations and development of waste disposal and related environmental services facilities within private firms or public authorities.

How people enter it

Entry is possible with a variety of academic qualifications, including a degree or equivalent qualification in a related subject, and/or relevant experience. Apprenticeships and NVQs at levels 3 and 4 and professional qualifications are available. Professional qualifications are available from the Chartered Institute of Wastes Management and may be mandatory in some operational management posts.

What the work involves

• determines staffing, financial, material and other short- and long-term requirements
• manages and delegates tasks to staff and co-ordinates the maintenance and optimum utilisation of waste disposal and related equipment to provide an efficient service
• monitors levels of waste disposal, recycling and related environmental services, compiles statistics and produces reports
• liaises with members of the local community to educate and promote the concept of recycling and appropriate waste management
• keeps up to date with new legislation and liaises with appropriate regulatory bodies to ensure compliance with legislation regarding waste disposal and environmental services
• co-ordinates the resources and activities relating to the procurement, collection, storage, processing and sale of scrap metal and related products

Also called

Environmental manager (refuse disposal) · Manager (waste disposal and environmental services) · Recycling plant manager · Scrap metal dealer

What it pays

How pay has changed

Median gross annual pay for waste disposal and environmental services managers, full-time employees, 2023 to 2025. Each point is that year's ASHE April snapshot as published — revisions are not backfilled into earlier years, and a year ONS withheld is a gap rather than a joined line.

ONS, ASHE Table 14 - occupation by four-digit SOC (national). Table

Year-on-year change

The change from each year to the next, in per cent, computed from the figures in the chart above — so the two cannot disagree.

ONS, ASHE Table 14 - occupation by four-digit SOC (national). Table

Pay by region

Median gross annual pay for full-time employees, ranked, against the UK figure. 0 of 11 regions are published: ONS withholds a cell where the survey sample cannot support it, and those are shown as gaps rather than dropped — an absent region is not a region without the work in it.

ONS, ASHE Table 14 - occupation by four-digit SOC (national). Period 2025. Table

Every regional figure

ONS does not publish occupational pay below region. Cells the survey could not support are shown as withheld, with its reason — adding a region split to a specific occupation leaves roughly a tenth of cells publishable.

Common questions

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