16 June 2004 - Health and Safety Performance in the Waste Industry
An HSE-funded study, Mapping health and safety standards in the UK waste industry, prepared by BOMEL Ltd, describing a study on the nature of the UK waste industry and its health and safety standards.
The UK waste industry employs an estimated 160,000 workers, which is estimated to rise significantly in the coming years.
The standard of health and safety performance is said to be 'poor' to say the least, with approximately 4000 reports of accidents each year and the accident rate for the waste industry of 2500 per 100,000 workers.
The most common workplace transport accidents are people being struck by a refuse collection vehicle or a car emerging.
Workshops were held with a range of delegates for waste collection and landfill or treatment in order to improve health and safety and the need to influence:
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risk controlling, the Standard Industry Classifications (SIC) and RIDDOR reporting systems are need of amendment
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developing a strategy for intervening with local authorities to reduce the number of waste-related accidents in the public sector
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strategies that are required to reduce the number of accidents resulting from being struck by vehicles, objects, trips including falls from vehicles, and manual handling
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company culture, ownership and control, organisational structure and health and safety management via companies’ head offices
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training and management / supervision in order to influence competence, team working, communications and compliance.
RR240: Mapping Health and Safety Standards in the UK Waste Industry can be found on the HSE web site here.
