The Health and Safety Executive for Northern Ireland (HSENI) has issued a safety warning to the country’s waste and recycling industry following ‘growing concerns about the continuing poor health and safety practices found in some parts of the industry’.

The warning has been issued by the enforcing authority for safety and health matters after it found that over the past six months, one person was killed, several people were ‘seriously injured’, and one person was severely burned following safety failings.

Indeed, HSENI says that the situation is in urgent need of change, as there is ‘little doubt that the numbers of incidents are under-reported’.

Jim King, Head of HSENI’s Waste Sector Group, stated: “Despite the ongoing work of the Waste Industry Safety and Health Forum (WISHNI) and HSENI, it appears that some employers simply don’t care about either their employees or about their organisation’s reputation. And, sadly, recent evidence gathered by HSENI inspectors suggests that it is only a matter of time before there is yet another fatality on a private waste and recycling operator’s site, unless the management of safety on a number of these sites improves dramatically.”

As such, King listed the areas of work that cause ‘most concern around serious accidents on waste sites’ and measures that employers can take to reduce the danger to employees.

Areas of particular interest

HSENI has identified that the main areas of concern centre around:

• workplace transport;
• all-round visibility from vehicles;
• machinery guarding and isolation;
• lack of training; and
• falls from heights.

He stated that employers should address these areas by taking the following measures:

• carrying out a workplace transport risk assessment and ‘taking action on the findings’;
• separating vehicle movements from pedestrians and people working in the area;
• fitting reversing cameras or fish-eye mirrors to the rear of vehicles;
• making sure all mirrors and cameras are properly adjusted and working;
• ensuring that machinery is not run if guards are missing and that staff know not to use machinery without a guard; and
• ensuring that machinery is not run if energy supplies to the machine are not isolated.

King concluded: “If one of your employees is killed at work then HSENI will investigate – as will the Police Service of Northern Ireland. The starting point of any such investigation will be around whether there is a case for corporate or gross negligence manslaughter. Your business will be stopped until the investigation is sure that the risk to employees has been dealt with. In addition, other charges may also be brought under health and safety law.”

Speaking last week, Environment Minister Mark H Durkan said: “There are vital steps which can and must be taken by those responsible for health and safety at waste facilities to ensure that we never have a repeat of the tragic and avoidable incidents that claimed the lives of David Layland at a landfill site in Mallusk in August 2008 and Alan Devenny at a Coleraine recycling centre in July 2011.

“We must never forget that there are real risks for those who work within this sector, and it must make every effort to ensure a safer working environment for them. I therefore fully support the work of WISHNI for its ongoing commitment to identifying, devising and promoting best practice to improve industry health and safety standards.”

HSENI recommend employers access ‘good practice toolbox talks’ for employees and visit the HSENI website for more information and guidance on safety.

Find out more about how to reduce risk at waste sites.