Dive Brief:

• The Solid Waste Association of North America (SWANA) has developed a survey designed for municipalities to confidentially report worksite accidents and injuries from 2015. Data will be gathered on collection and/or post-collection accidents and injuries such as frequency of events among municipal solid waste collection workers and vehicles.
• Collected incident data will be analyzed to pinpoint trends that can be examined to help improve safety.  SWANA will present its findings at WASTECON 2016 in Indianapolis, IN and release the completed survey on SWANA’s website.
• Participants have the option to download the survey and provide responses directly to Jesse Maxwell at jmaxwell@swana.org by June 15, 2016.

Dive Insight:

While there is existing national data on deaths and injuries in the solid waste management industry, SWANA CEO David Biderman said, "The Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data covering the industry is flawed in some respects, and this additional data set will provide SWANA with a better understanding of the frequency and most common causes of accidents and injuries involving local governments that operate solid waste collection systems and post-collection facilities. This [data] will allow us to develop more targeted safety resources for our members."

Understanding what is happening where and why are precursors to development of best practices aimed at removing refuse collection from the list of top 10 most dangerous occupations. Capturing relevant information helps get to the route of safety problems, will aid the industry in addressing them on a large scale, and the completed survey may serve SWANA members by encouraging awareness and dialogues on safety.

Both SWANA and the National Waste & Recycling Association (NWRA) continue focusing on safety topics like on-board camera technology, standards for equipment and protective gear, and online videos for coaching refuse drivers.