A new competency framework designed to improve health and safety compliance within the waste management industry has been launched by the Scottish Waste Industry Training Competency and Health & Safety (SWITCH) Forum.

A good practice event held at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall yesterday (17 February) launched the new ‘Resource Management Competence Framework’, a self-assessment tool and a user guide. The first-of-its-kind guide has been developed with support from Zero Waste Scotland, and It focuses on providing core competencies for frontline roles in household, commercial and industrial waste management.

Over 30 organisations from the waste and recycling industry make up the SWITCH Forum, which aims to raise standards of health and safety, training, learning, development and competence in the Scottish resource management industry.

‘A consistent baseline of competency’

Charlie Devine, Head of Resource Management at Zero Waste Scotland, who also chairs the SWITCH Forum, said: “There are still many hazards and risks associated with the resource management and recycling industry, and health and safety must remain the utmost priority. With the introduction of the new framework we hope that we can raise health and safety standards and start to enhance knowledge, skills and behaviours and improve the industry’s health and safety record.”

Jim Brown, Commercial Director, Binn Group, commented that “there’s a long way to go to make [the industry] a safer place to work”, adding that “the competency framework and self-assessment tool will play a focal part in what we are seeking to achieve”.

Audrey Duckworth, Environmental Manager at the William Tracey Group, said: “The nature of our industry means we are acutely aware of both our health and safety and environmental responsibilities. Adopting the SWITCH framework ensures that every employee joining our business has a consistent baseline of competency and provides a strong foundation from which to build their knowledge and skills. The flexible design of the framework made it easy to implement and we had our first Training Academy Graduate in just six months.”

Health and safety in the waste industry

The waste industry has previously been branded one of the most dangerous to work in, with the most recent Health and Safety Executive (HSE) statistics for the waste management industry in the UK recording five fatal injuries to waste workers and six to members of the public in 2014/15. In the last five years there have been 33 worker deaths in the waste sector.

The HSE figures suggest that 1,879 employer-reported non-fatal injuries occurred in the waste sector in 2014/15, almost 70 per cent of which were due to either slips, trips, falls or being struck by an object.

Between 2010/11 and 2014/15, an average of 5,000 cases of non-fatal workplace injury have been reported in the waste sector each year. This represents 4.1 per cent of all workers, twice the all-industry rate of 2.0 per cent.

Moreover, 6,000 self-reported cases of work-related illness occurred in the waste sector each year between 2009/10 and 2014/15. This accounts for around 5.1 per cent of the sector’s workforce, significantly higher than the 3.1 per cent rate recorded for workers across all other industries.