Individual awareness and behaviour change is at the heart of a new CIWM health and safety (H&S) campaign being launched today (12 September) at RWM.
Spearheaded by CIWM’s Health, Safety & Wellbeing Special Interest Group (SIG), the aim is to get CIWM members to question their own approach to health and safety and to encourage them to consider H&S issues on a daily basis as part of normal operations.
More specifically, the year-long ‘This time its personal’campaign aims to:
- reach every member, not just those with health and safety in their job title;
- encourage members to take personal responsibility and have a clear understanding about what is expected of them in their role including wellbeing, PPE, traffic safety and plant and equipment use;
- help members to improve standards by making changes within their area of responsibility including challenging the behaviour of others and recognising other common human factors;
- highlight methods of good/best practice and encourage others to follow these, and to benchmark themselves against good performers; and
- encourage CIWM members to share and promote workplace initiatives, particularly where there has been an improvement to their performance as a result.
The CIWM SIG behind the campaign includes a number of representatives from the Waste Industry Safety & Health (WISH) Forum, as well as major private waste contractors, consultant and training providers.
“Research published earlier this year by the Health and Safety Executive and supported by CIWM examined the common human factors in fatal accidents in our sector and found that one of the key factors is individuals having insufficient knowledge of how to plan and perform tasks safely.”
Explaining the importance of improving personal awareness, Geoff Smallwood, member of the SIG, chair of the WISH waste fires working group, and SHEQ Director at Renewi, said: “Safety is paramount in the waste and recycling sector and despite a lot of hard work across the sector, we still have a poor record in comparison to other industries.
“Research published earlier this year by the Health and Safety Executive and supported by CIWM examined the common human factors in fatal accidents in our sector and found that one of the key factors is individuals having insufficient knowledge of how to plan and perform tasks safely.
“It is, therefore, essential that we all work to improve standards and the image of the sector and the CIWM SIG hopes that this campaign will stimulate a fresh approach to individual behaviour.”
The campaign will be based around monthly topics and the programme of events will include webinars, expert blogs, Open Meetings at CIWM’s regional centres and a dedicated web area on the CIWM website where all the campaign information will be available, as well as tips, good practice and signposts to relevant guidance, information and H&S news.
The first two webinars are already open for booking here.
CIWM, HSE and WISH Webinar – ‘This time it’s personal’
20 September 2018
This joint webinar will launch the ‘This time its personal’ campaign and promote the upcoming HSE inspection programme. Speakers include Ceri Beynon, HSE’s Acting HM Principal Inspector of Health & Safety – Waste & Recycling Team, and Toni Gladding, lecturer at the Open University and WISH Representative.
Equipment Safety Webinar
15 November 2018
This webinar is specifically aimed at waste managers at recycling and recovery plants and speakers include Geoff Smallwood, who wrote the WISH information sheet on lock-off in the waste industry, and SHEQ Director at Renewi. It will cover topics including:
- What is lock-off and when should it be used?
- Interlocks, emergency stops and other common errors and misconceptions
- What are the basic components of a lock-off procedure?
- Training and enforcement of lock-off
