2 September 2004 - New HSE Web Site Area - Health and Safety in the Waste Management and Recycling Industries
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has recently published a new area on their web site providing access to a range of information about health and safety for the Waste Management and Recycling Industries.
The recent report - RR240 - Mapping health and safety standards in the UK waste industry indicates that there are at present around 162,500 people employed in the Waste Management industry. Many more are employed in other activities associated with specific recyclables and ancillary activities such as transportation.
Waste Management Activities include:
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Collection
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Reception (e.g. Civic Amenity Sites)
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Sorting
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Recovery of materials
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Biological treatment of organic materials (e.g. composting)
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Thermal treatment (including incineration with energy recovery
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Landfill
James Barrett, Head of HSE’s Manufacturing Sector commented:
“Of all the industries HSE monitors, the waste management and recycling industry has the highest fatal incident rate, figures that are well above both construction and agriculture. This is simply unacceptable. I welcome this new website as a place where the industry can obtain free advice. The industry itself must take steps to instil effective health and safety management and develop a sensible health and safety culture.”
Trevor Hay, Chair of the Waste Industry Safety and Health forum (WISH), also commented:
“Sadly, the waste and recycling industry compares unfavourably with most other industries in its health and safety performance. This new site is designed to help the industry improve its performance and because it is so easy to get to and to use, effort will not be wasted in this rapidly growing industry.”
The new web site can be accessed by clicking this link: Health and Safety in the Waste Management and Recycling Industries - Homepage
