UK – report investigates health in safety in the waste management industry

Research for the UK Government‘‘s Heatlth & Safety Executive (HSE) ‘‘Mapping health and safety standards in the UK waste industry‘‘ indicates that there are currently 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 a multitude of activities, including: Collection; Reception (eg Civic Amenity Sites); Sorting; Recovery of materials; Biological treatment of organic materials (e.g. composting); Thermal treatment (including incineration with energy recovery, and; Landfill



Mapping health and safety standards in the UK waste industry



This report describes a study on the nature of the UK waste industry and its health and safety standards. It is estimated that around 160,000 workers are employed in the waste industry. Recent research estimates that around 45,000 extra jobs could potentially be created by 2010. The waste industry reports around 4,000 accidents each year. The overall accident rate for the waste industry is around 2,500 per 100,000 workers. Over 3-day injury handling accidents are the most common. Being struck by a refuse collection vehicle or a car are the most common workplace transport accidents.



The report, carried out by Bomel Limited for HSE, shows that, in 2001-02,



the number of fatal incidents are over ten times the national average accident rates are four times the national average



The incidents predominantly occur to refuse/recycling collection workers who manually handle and sort waste.



The main causes of injury are:



By frequency of accident (total number of reported accident):

manual handling injuries (including cuts from sharps)

slips and trips

struck by objects (eg refuse during collection)

By severity of accident (total reported major injuries and fatalities only):

slips and trips

struck by objects

transport related accidents

Statistical data on health issues within the waste industry is currently unreliable, and research continues. However, health concerns include:

manual handling

exposure to bioaerosols