Blueprint sets out waste industry's safety drive

The Waste Industry Safety and Health (WISH) Forum has been working on its blueprint for better risk management since a landmark summit in February, and the final plan puts the focus on those areas where industry leaders agree action needs to be concentrated.

WISH’s plan outlines 24 immediate action points under five strategic themes – providing strong leadership, involving the workforce, building competence, creating healthier and safer workplaces, and providing support for small and medium sized employers.

Key initiatives include the industry developing its own leadership standards, publishing new training materials on successful worker involvement, and work with customers to use their leverage to promote improved competence.

Chris Jones, WISH chair and director of risk management and compliance at Cory Environmental, said:"WISH has been working to improve health, safety and welfare in waste and recycling for more than a decade, and we’ve made some good progress in that time.

"There’s no shortage of desire in the industry to improve our record – this was clear from the summit in February and the amount of energy and commitment shown in getting us to this point in publishing the blueprint.

"If the industry combines its efforts, contributes and supports the work needed then everything is achievable, and without unreasonable cost or burden. The more that take part in, and contribute to, the working groups that are being set up, the greater will be the knowledge base, the wider the experience and the lesser will be the burden upon everybody.

"We wanted this to be a sort of road map to healthier and safer industry – something that lets anyone in waste and recycling join us on a journey. There’s a long road ahead but we’re off in the right direction."

Graeme Walker, HSE’s waste and recycling lead, said: "This is a really important development in the drive for improved health and safety in the waste and recycling sector – it shows the industry’s unequivocal commitment to reducing the number of people killed, injured or made unwell. We know from our experience in other sectors, such as construction, that long-term sustainable improvements rely on strong industry leadership and that is what we are seeing here."

Key figures from across the industry are being recruited to chair sub-groups to drive forward implementation the plan, which will be updated regularly.

WISH will continue to oversee the implementation and its members will acts as advocates in each of the subgroups.