New WISH website aims to give ‘easy access’ to waste health and safety guidance
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ShareThe Waste Industry Safety and Health (WISH) Forum has today (24 February) launched a new website to provide health and safety guidance to local authorities and businesses in the waste management industry.
Hosted by the Chartered Institution of Wastes Management (CIWM), the site contains industry-specific information previously available on the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) website.
WISH is a multi-party group made up of organisations broadly representing the waste and recycling industry, established to provide information and identify good practice across the various operations of the waste industry to ensure health, safety and wellbeing for those working in waste.
The forum’s members include representatives from the HSE, trade and professional associations, recycling organisations and national and local government bodies involved in waste management and recycling.
The new WISH site, which has been designed to enable easier navigation, hosts both formal guidance documents and other resources, including best practice case studies.
Health and safety ‘of paramount importance’
Six workers in the waste industry died in workplace incidents in 2015/16 according to the HSE, taking the figure for the last five years to 30. In that time, there have also been 12 fatal injuries to members of the public arising from waste sector activities.
The number of non-fatal injuries is also significantly higher than average, with around 4.6 per cent of workers in the industry sustaining a workplace injuries between 2009/10 and 2015/16, compared to the all-industry rate of 2.0 per cent.
Commenting on the new site, Chris Jones, Chair of WISH, said: “It is right that industry health and safety guidance is available on a dedicated industry website. In addition to our formal health and safety guidance, it contains WISH information documents, details of our strategy and current initiatives and projects, and how to get involved with a WISH work group.
“Waste management is a rapidly developing industry facing many health and safety challenges. The aim of the new WISH web site is to give operators easy access to the advice and guidance they need to meet these challenges.”
“As members of WISH, we are delighted to be supporting the new website”, added CIWM’s Chief Executive Dr Colin Church. “Health and safety is of paramount importance and the WISH Forum provides a valuable set of resources and access to ongoing work and initiatives to improve the health and safety record of this sector.”
The new WISH Forum site can be found at wishforum.org.uk.
