Dive Brief:
- The National Waste & Recycling Association (NWRA) held the second event in its 2016 Safety Professional Development Series, hosted by Republic Services, in Chicago on Sept. 28.
- The session included workshops on complying with Department of Transportation and Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) regulations, as well as promoting safety culture.
- NWRA held the first event in this series in Boston last month. The goal of these events is to inform members about the latest safety practices and approaches from all industries.
Dive Insight:
This event series is part of an ongoing campaign by NWRA to highlight safety issues through meetings, webinars, online toolkits and other resources. The organization also recently announced that its latest Safety Stand Down initiative focused on back-to-school received 70% participation from private industry members. In addition to this series, NWRA co-hosted a safety symposium in New York over the summer which featured similar sessions.
The Solid Waste Association of North America (SWANA) has also been very active on this issue and collaborated with NWRA on multiple occasions. Earlier this week, SWANA released data showing that 98 fatalities connected to municipal solid waste happened between July 1, 2015 and June 30, 2016 in the U.S. Out of these 98 fatalities, 60 were members of the public involved in crashes with vehicles or other equipment.
This grim statistic further highlights the fact that waste workers must watch out not only for each other but also those around them. Driving a collection vehicle can offer a good career path but comes with a lot of responsibility.
