There are many activities that fall outside the HSE’s areas of responsibility. HSE’s primary role is to protect those at work in waste and recycling activities and anyone who might be affected by that work e.g. members of the public. Instead, they may be covered by powers held by other national or local government bodies.
Specifically for waste management and recycling examples would include:
It is the Local Authority who has responsibility for waste and recycling collections in a particular area. That service may be provided directly by the local authority itself or it may have contracted out the service to a specialist contractor. In either case the first point of contact for issues relating to the collection of your waste or recyclables should be the Local Authority.
Another useful source of information on waste and recycling services can be found at the Waste Resource Action Programme (WRAP) site.
Local Authorities are empowered to deal with a wide range of issues that are not the responsibility of the HSE. Usually these matters (e.g. odour, noise, vermin infestation) are dealt with by the Local Authority's Environmental Health or Services Dept or on some cases the Environment Agency (or Scottish Environmental Protection Agency in Scotland).
HSE is not responsible for planning permissions for the siting of or permitting of waste and recycling facilities. Those aspects are dealt with by Environment Agency (or Scottish Environmental Protection Agency in Scotland) and the local authority in which the activity takes place.
The Waste Industry Safety and Health (WISH) forum is a multi-party forum made up of organisations broadly representing the waste and recycling industry. WISH members include representatives from HSE, main trade associations, professional associations, trade unions, recycling organisations and national and local government bodies involved in waste management and recycling. Its purpose is to provide information, identify solutions and stimulate action across the industry to ensure the health, safety and well-being of those working in the industry and those affected by its activities.
In January 2009, the WISH forum launched its Charter and strategic objectives to improve performance in the industry over a four-year period (January 2009 to December 2013). The strategy has five key objectives:
Further information on WISH, it's members and the work it is currently undertaking can be found on the Waste Industry Safety and Health page.
The guide health hazards in the waste and recycling industry is associated with four main routes:
Additional information on the source of the hazards, the risks they pose and reasonably practicable control measures that can be used to prevent or control exposure can be found on the occupational health page.
HSE is not the Enforcing Authority for issues relating to odours and complaints should be referred to the appropriate Local Authority, Environmental Health Department or Environment Agency (or Scottish Environmental protection Agency (SEPA) in Scotland).
Composted material may have a distinctive smell, depending on the feedstock, for example if it contains a large proportion of pine branches there will be the characteristic resin smell. The volatile chemicals responsible for smells are gases, which are smaller in size and lighter than particles of dust and bio aerosols (mould spores and bacterial cells in the air) behave like small particles of dust. Consequently, gases can travel further in the air than the heavier particles, which drop from the air under gravity. Some odorous gases can be smelled at extremely low concentration. Sometimes, if composting activities are poorly managed, the compost becomes 'anaerobic' (oxygen starved) which causes the bacteria in the compost to create different chemicals with unpleasant smells. In many cases, this can be avoided: if it occurs you should complain to the compost site or bring it to the attention of the local authority.
Bioaerosols, including those from compost, are like any other small dust particles in the air. They can move and be carried along in air currents before falling to the ground under gravity. If the wind direction and strength is known, it is possible to predict in what direction and how far a bioaerosol will travel away from the source of its release. As it is carried by air currents from that source, it will be dispersed and therefore diluted in concentration as it mixes with the surrounding air. Local conditions will affect this; for example, the warmth from a compost pile will make the bioaerosol rise higher in the air, and nearby buildings, trees, fences etc will also push the air current higher into the air, causing more mixing with the surrounding air and dilution of the bioaerosol.
Most published studies on compost bioaerosol exposure and health have focused on the exposure of workers on sites handling the material, because their exposure will be greatest. Some studies have looked at the effect of composting activities on surrounding bioaerosol concentrations. A limited number of studies have looked at the health of nearby residents. While it is recognised from these studies that under certain conditions composting activities nearby may raise bioaerosol concentrations above background levels, these concentrations are much lower than would occur on a composting site near to compost material being handled. There is no reported evidence of significant increase in ill health in residents near composting sites in these situations. The lungs of a healthy person are capable of being exposed to relatively large concentrations of micro-organisms without ill effect.
For more information on composting and recycling biodegradable waste can be found at:
Research
Parts of the waste management and recycling industry have problems dealing with unwanted or unidentifiable (‘orphaned’) compressed gas cylinders that turn up in the waste stream. In addition, other cylinders such as fire extinguishers can contain small internal CO2 cylinders under high pressure.
Discarded cylinders which still contain containing compressed gases, (or which are apparently empty but in fact still contain some residual content) commonly appear in the waste stream, especially at civic amenity sites and metal recyclers.
The quantities of compressed gas cylinders on a civic amenity sites or metal recycling site should be kept as low as is reasonably practicable within the limits of the safe storage facilities that have been provided, and they should be collected on a regular basis (see below for details on collection). It may take quite some time for smaller civic amenity sites and metals recyclers to accumulate sufficient cylinders to require a collection.
The Liquefied Petroleum Gas Association (LPGA) comprises all the major manufacturers and fillers of LPG in the UK, and sets standards for the industry. Currently, the LPGA coordinates a LPG cylinder retrieval scheme and arrangements are in place for the major national companies
Particular problems can arise when cylinders that are concealed within other metal waste is processed at metal recycling sites. Rupture of the cylinders within the fragmentisers or shredders can cause explosions. Sites should have suitable systems in place to remove, so far as reasonably practicable, all cylinders from the waste stream prior to reduce the potential of such incidents.
Further information can be found at:
Transport related lifting operations can cause serious personal injury or death. Whilst it is not comprehensive, the advice covers transport-related lifting operations involving the use of:
Further information on transport related lifting operations is available at:
The training requirements for drivers of plant eg shovel loaders, excavators, fork lift trucks (FLTs), telehandlers etc. in a waste and recycling setting will be no different to other industry sectors (e.g. general manufacturing, construction and agriculture). Driver competence is judged on the basis of experience, recognised training (formal training – either deliver in-house or externally) and testing of knowledge and ability.
No-one should be allowed to drive (operate) a vehicle unless their employer has authorised them to do so in writing. The employer should not authorise a driver unless the driver has received adequate training and the employer is satisfied that the driver is competent to operate the shovel loader.
Certificates of training from recognised training schemes help demonstrate competence. But employers are perfectly entitled to devise and operate their own in-house training schemes - this is especially the case with some larger companies.
While employers may operate their own in-house training schemes, they should have similar content to the more formal training courses that are available. Furthermore, they may find it useful to have the courses delivered by an Accredited Training Provider.
Further information on plant operator training and general training requirements can be found on the Waste and Recycling Training page.
‘Offensive/hygiene’ waste is produced by healthcare (medical care) practices or healthcare workers in the community and as well as that produced by domestic households from personal use. These wastes can be found in the municipal waste and recycling streams and they have the potential to cause ill health to workers handling them. Typical effects can be:
Offensive/hygiene wastes can include:
Offensive/hygiene waste should only be processed by licensed facilities capable of safe handling and disposal.
Further information on this subject is available at:
Other ‘clinical’ waste as defined under environmental legislation as ‘hazardous healthcare wastes that is hazardous from its infectious nature or its medicinal or chemical properties’ should be handled, transported, treated and disposed of as set out in guidance from the Environment Agency website and the Department of Health.
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