The UK’s Waste Industry Safety and Health Forum (WISH) has issued its third updated guidance document for managing COVID-19 risks for waste management activities.
WISH released its third update to the guidance on 23 April
Released earlier today (23 April) the updated guidance now includes advice on returning to businesses as normal and specific information on public waste bins.
One of the standout recommendations includes considering the help of the police to manage the “safe and orderly” reopening of Household Waste and Recycling Centres (HWRCs).
Time spent in shared cabs should also be minimised, the updated guidance says, “although it is accepted this may not always be achievable”.
Business as normal
Today’s document states that COVID-19 has resulted in “various changes to waste management services”, most notably the suspension of green and bulky waste collections and the temporary closure of recycling centres.
The advice document explained that “whatever the changes made, resumption of services needs careful consideration and planning. Waste management operators, and their clients, should start to plan in advance now for the resumption of services and returning to ‘business as usual’, or at least more normal services.”
The guidance include information on resuming services which have been stopped during the pandemic, such as garden waste collections
WISH said the following measures should be considered before any resumption of suspended services:
- Phased resumption, such as not resuming all services at the same time
- Any additional resources required to tackle any backlog
- Communication with the public regarding the resumption of services, how this will be handled and any restrictions which will be in place
- For commercial waste collections, close communication with customers and clients to ensure that as they reopen services can be resumed in an orderly and safe manner
HWRCs
The reopening of HWRCs has caused much debate in the waste sector, with Veolia most recently launching guidance on how they can be safely reopened, classing them as essential (see letsrecycle.com story).
This came soon after Suez released a similar guidance urging them to remain closed (see letsrecycle.com story).
With Defra ranking them as a “medium priority”, councils have been looking at ways in which HWRCs can open safely.
The guidance says that where HWRCs sites have been temporarily closed their reopening needs to be “planned carefully”.
Some of the following measures should be considered:
A number of measures relating to the reopening of HWRCs were included in the guide
Phased opening of HWRC/CA sites rather than opening all sites at once
Partial opening, such as only accepting specific types of waste in the short-term. For example, only accepting green and bulky wastes for the first few weeks
Use of pre-booked time slots for members of the public rather than allowing everyone to simply turn-up at the HWRC/CA site
Restricting access, such as by post code or ‘odd/even’ car registrations on different days to allow phasing of initial demand
External support which may be required, such as from the police, to manage the safe and orderly reopening of HWRC/CA sites, and communication and planning with such external resources before sites are reopened
Street bins
Other changes from previous guidance include clarification that litter and the contents of litter bins, including gloves and masks discarded by the public while out exercising, shopping for food and similar, can be collected and bagged using the normal precautions and procedures.
Also, normal precautions aimed at reducing the risk of ‘sleepers in bins’ and hazardous items in waste streams, such as gas cylinders, should be maintained, as well as monitoring processes aimed at checking that crews are following good standards of safety.
The guidance gives information about social distancing
Shared cabs
Previous guidance has listed examples of measures crews could take to reduce transmission, such as erecting screens and update handwashing advice.
The third copy still includes this information, but has said for the first time that time spent in cabins should be minimsed.
Useful links
A PDF with changes from the previous edition highlighted, can be found here.
The full guidance without highlighted changes can be found here
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Source: letsrecycle.com Waste Managment
