That the waste industry traditionally had a poor health and safety record is known by the majority of professionals working in the sector. What is perhaps less well known is what is being done to improve upon this poor record and whether the interventions are in fact working.

Headline statistics from a UK waste industry health and safety report compiled by Bomel Ltd for the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) showed in 2001/02 that: the number of fatal incidents were over 10 times the national average; and accident rates were four times the national average.

Those statistics are now quite old, though. Almost a decade on, how is the waste industry performing?

Well, some evidence suggests that the waste industry’s health and safety performance is improving when set against its own baseline. It does depend, however, upon exactly which set of indices you choose to compare. Accident, injury and ill health data each show a slightly different picture.

Regrettably, fatal accidents have been quite constant at around a dozen or so per year. In 2009/10, however, the figure fell to seven. Clearly this is still seven too many, but the reduction is very welcome. It is unknown at this stage whether this is a blip or the start of a downward trend.

Perhaps a more useful indicator of performance is RIDDOR data (Reportable Injuries, Diseases or Dangerous Occurrences Regulations) because larger datasets are available for analysis. In April 2009, the HSE published research showing that injury rates in the waste industry have decreased by approximately 15 per cent since their peak in 2003/04.

But at 2,207 reportable injuries per 100,000 workers in the sector, the injury rate is still more than four times the
all-industry average.

Taking into account the huge growth in waste and recycling (and hence the number of people employed in the sector) since the early noughties, around 800 fewer injuries are happening per year. This is encouraging overall, showing the sector is improving against historical performance. However, the decrease follows the same trend line as industry in general. This means that the waste industry is not improving relative to other employment sectors.

So, what is being done?

Members of the Waste Industry Safety and Health (WISH) Forum include representatives from across the spectrum of the waste industry, organisations and government bodies including Defra, WRAP and LARAC. The WISH Forum’s aim is to identify, devise and promote activities to improve industry health and safety standards. In 2009, WISH launched its charter and strategic objectives for the period January 2009 to December 2013.

The charter includes the following five strategic objectives: reduce the overall RIDDOR-reported accident rate by
10 per cent year on year by December 2013; identify metrics and agree a strategy to reduce the number of working days lost within 24 months; gain widespread adoption of safety management systems such as OHSAS 18000; improve attitudes within the workforce to health and safety; and increase the level of competence within the industry.

Members of the WISH Forum work in their own ways to progress these objectives within their own spheres of influence. Additionally, task and finish groups drawn from members of WISH have been established to tackle an objective each and report to the WISH Forum committee.

Work on each of these objectives is well under way, and WISH, in recent months, has contributed to HSE guidance issued on ‘Picking from the floor’, ‘Noise in glass collections’ and ‘Safe collection routes’, as well as forming a special interest group looking at issues arising from food waste collections.

At the midpoint in the WISH Forum charter, good progress is being made, in some cases against quite challenging targets. The waste industry has a huge role to play in improving its health and safety and, despite these financially constrained times, cannot allow the topic to drop down the agenda.