Accident rate in waste and recycling sector drops by 15%

The figures published last week (April 8) by Health and Safety Executive (HSE), which were prepared by consultancy firm Noble Denton Bomel, show that the injury rate for the sector was almost four times the ‘all-industry average' and double the accident rate for the manufacturing and construction sectors.

The HSE claimed that there had been “a lot of work” to improve the industry's “poor record” in relation to incidents but called for further improvement.

Geoff Cox, head of the manufacturing sector at the HSE, said: “The declining performance at the beginning of this decade has been halted and we can now see improvements that equate to 800 fewer injuries per year.”

“There is a long way to go but I am confident we will continue to see far fewer workers killed or injured with the positive lead from the Waste Industry Safety and Health (WISH) Forum,” he added.

Mr Cox called on companies, contractors and employers to work to assess best practice in the workplace and pointed to a five-year charter aimed at reducing accidents in the sector signed in January by members of the Waste Industry Safety and Health (WISH) Forum – an industry body aimed at promoting health and safety in the sector (see letsrecycle.com story).

Research

The research report, entitled ‘Update to mapping the health and safety standards in the UK waste industry', calculated the number of incidents reported against the number of workers employed in the industry.

The figures show there were 2,207 reportable injuries per 100,000 employees in 2007/08 in the waste and recycling sector compared to 2,614 in 2003/04, when accident figures for the sector peaked.

And, the research found that the profile of reported injuries remained the same with 80% of incidents categorised as handling sprains, trips and ‘struck by', and more than 75% of those injured were involved in collecting, sorting or disposing of waste materials.

Recommendations

However, within the 82-page report, it was recommended that the understanding the “accident profile” of various collection methods and vehicles could help better inform the HSE policy in the waste sector.

And it claimed, with the increased recycling activity in the UK, the existing RIDDOR (Reporting of Injures, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations) codes do not contain “sufficient information to ascertain whether the accidents result from recycling activities”.

The research report concluded by claiming that a “narrative study”, which would include notifier comments and inspector investigation summaries, could also help to inform a greater understanding of why accidents happened and to what extent they were problems unique to recycling.