Safety at 'bring-sites' in the waste management and recycling ... - HSE

Health and Safety
Executive
35 Effective housekeeping can reduce risks:
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a clean site, free from liquid spillages, dropped items, broken glass etc
around the receptacles will minimise the slips and trips risk. Appropriate
personal protective equipment (eg cut-resistant gloves) should be
provided and used;
materials for removing snow and ice should be available and used when
required;
housekeeping activities should not be carried out while vehicles are
manoeuvring or receptacles are being lifted or lowered in the vicinity.
36 You can find more guidance on slips, trips and falls at www.hse.gov.uk/slips/.
Manual handling
37 The risk assessment process will help identify the risks associated with
manual handling to the public:
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whether the need for manual handling can be avoided;
the level of risk of injury from any manual handling operation that cannot
be avoided;
measures to reduce the risk of injury from manual handling.
38 Adopting some of the following suggestions may minimise the risks
associated with manual handling to the public. The checklist is not
comprehensive and your risk assessment may reveal other hazards and help
identify other methods of effectively reducing the risks presented by those
hazards.
Table 3 Minimising risks in lifting operations
Potential hazards
Carrying loads over unnecessary
distances
Unnecessary reaching and
stooping
Steep ramps and steps
Lack of information to the public
Preventive features
Try to get the load and the receptacle as close to each other as
possible, eg by locating car parking drop-off points as close as is
practicable to the receptacles
When selecting feed apertures to receptacles ensure, so far as is
reasonably practicable:
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they are ideally between knuckle and elbow height (if that is
not possible then they should be between knuckle and shin
height, or between elbow and shoulder height)
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they are not at or near ground level, and above shoulder height
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areas around feed apertures are kept clear of obstructions, so
that people can get close to the feed aperture and do not
have to over-reach
Are steep ramps and steps really necessary? Could more appropriate
receptacles be chosen?
Advise the public, by signs or other means, that to reduce the
handling risks to themselves, they can:
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break the load down to be lighter and less bulky
use bags or other containers to make the load easier to grasp
use both hands when carrying
avoid stooping and reaching where possible
Safety at ‘bring-sites’ in the waste management and recycling industry Page 9 of 13