On the wish list

摘要

In June last year, the Chartered Institution of Wastes Management (CIWM) launched a voluntary health, safety and welfare pledge for the waste and resource management sector at its joint conference with the Environmental Services Association (ESA). Designed to raise awareness and promote a stronger focus on health, safety and welfare issues, the pledge urged its members to go beyond the basic legal requirements and commit to making workplaces safer. The launch came on the back of the latest statistics, published by the HSE, which revealed that 16 people had died in the sector during 2012/2013. Only the previous September, the HSE had urged the industry to do more to improve worker safety after nine people were killed over a 12-week period. For Chris Jones, chair of the Waste Industry Safety and Health (WISH) Forum, a multi-party body comprised of organisations drawn from the sector, criticism of the waste industry has been justified, to a point.