Zero harm workplace targeted by ESA

Waste industry trade body, the ESA, has launched a renewed Accident Reduction Charter in a bid to improve health and safety in the sector and work towards its ambition of a zero harm workplace.

The Charter sets out five aims for ESA members, building on the Associations previous Health and Safety Charter which was first launched in 2004 and has been revised twice since.

The renewed Charter commits the ESA and its members to deliver the highest standards of health and safety and includes the continuation of a pre-existing target to reduce accidents by 10% year-on-year, which now runs until 2018.

Some in the waste management sector are thought to consider that a more ambitious accident reduction target than 10% could have been adopted by the Association. However, during the time that the 10% reduction target has been in place, accidents among ESA members have fallen by 65%.

The Charter states: We believe it can never be acceptable that people are fatally injured or harmed as a result of avoidable accidents in the waste and resource management industry, and will ensure that all necessary steps are taken to achieve this aim.

The five aims of the Accident Reduction Charter are:

1. Reduce the incidence rate of RIDDOR reportable accidents by a minimum of 10% year-on-year until 2018
2. Demonstrate a visible commitment to health and safety through leadership
3. Encourage and support worker engagement in health and safety
4. Contribute to the development and sharing of industry good practice
5. Support the Waste Industry Safety & Health (WISH) Forum to deliver its five strategy
   Goals.

ESAs director general, Barry Dennis said: We are delighted to reaffirm our commitment to health and safety. Over the ten years since the launch of our first Charter; and while both handling increasing volumes of materials, and expanding into more innovative ways of recycling and treating waste, ESA members have managed to reduce accidents by more than 65%.

He added: Clearly, we have more to do to achieve our ambition of zero harm, but ESA Members are moving in the right direction. They have demonstrated to the wider sector that hard work and strong leadership can produce results.

‘Our members have made vast improvements and significantly lowered the number of workplace injuries over the last decade.’

David Palmer-Jones, ESA chairman

HSE

The signing of the Charter by the ESA board was overseen by Rick Brunt, head of the waste and recycling sector at the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).

It came after the HSE last week announced a fall in workers killed in the waste and recycling industry in 2013/14 (see letsrecycle.com story).

Mr Brunt said: It is timely that ESA is reaffirming commitment in the week HSE announced last years fatal accident statistics. The decrease in workers killed in the waste and recycling industry last year is encouraging, but it is fair to say the number of deaths has fluctuated greatly year on year over the last five years and the industry needs to make a concerted effort to sustain improved performance year on year.

HSE is committed to continuing to work with all parts of the industry to drive down the number of lives lost or permanently changed through workplace injury. Long-term sustainable improvements rely on strong industry leadership and the level of commitment typified by the ESA charter.

Progress

Every year ESA Members including companies such as Veolia Environmental Services, Biffa, Viridor and SITA UK report accident data to measure progress against these targets. Annual analysis of these figures helps identify key areas in which resources can be focused on improvements to the numbers or severity of accidents.

Provisional data (for 2013) shows that ESA Members achieved a 7% reduction in accidents compared to the previous year.

ESA chairman, Mr. David Palmer-Jones of SITA UK, said: “Our members have made vast improvements and significantly lowered the number of workplace injuries over the last decade. However, I’m sure all ESA members share the view that one fatality or serious injury is one too many, and that we should continue to strive towards achieving a zero-harm workplace.

“That is why I am proud to be chairman of the ESA as we commit ourselves to a renewed Accident Reduction Charter, which reaffirms our goal of making our industry a safer one to work in.”