Solid Waste Association of North America’s Latest Safety Tips : SWANA’s Five to Stay Alive for Waste to Energy Workers

The Solid Waste Association of North America (SWANA) has released the latest installment to its ‘Five to Stay Alive’ series, featuring safety tips for employees at waste to energy plants.

In its latest publication the organisation explained that sites are highly mechanised environments where humans and powerful machines frequently come into contact. Although employers at these plants have low injury rates, there are safety hazards and risks aplenty.

According to SWANA, the key to improving safety at energy from waste plants involves not only proper initial training for workers, but regular refreshers to keep employees from falling into dangerous habits.

The “Five to Stay Alive” safety campaign includes flyers and posters that provide a useful set of guidelines for employees to follow to reduce accidents and injuries on the job, and keep safety front-of-mind at every job level.

“I am proud of SWANA’s latest addition to its award-winning safety resources,” stated David Biderman, SWANA Executive Director and CEO.

“More than 33 million tons of solid waste are processed annually at roughly 77 WTE facilities in the United States, and there are a handful of WTE facilities in Canada as well. These new safety resources will help workers at these important disposal facilities work safely, every day,” he added.

Bruce Howie, P.E., Vice President at HDR and past SWANA Waste-To-Energy Technical Division Director, worked with SWANA to develop the new Five to Stay Alive installment.

“Waste to energy facility operators have long been leaders in implementing some of the most stringent and forward-thinking safety standards in the solid waste industry; however, even the strictest standards won’t protect employees if not followed by everyone, and waste to energy facilities are still not immune from lost-time accidents and even worker deaths,” said Howie.

“This reality makes this installment of the Five to Stay Alive for the waste to energy industry relevant for everyone from the plant’s operators to the occasional plant visitor,” he added.

SWANA is encouraging waste to energy professionals to use its latest tool, in addition to its other safety resources, to continue efforts in creating a positive workplace safety culture, in order to move the solid waste industry off of the federal government’s list of most dangerous jobs.

Five to Stay Alive resources are available for download HERE

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