BUSINESS CLINIC 1. General precautions
• Controlling the spread of COVID-19 and workplace advice
• Risk assessment • Good hygiene • Social distancing • Cleaning procedures • Handling wastes • PPE • Vulnerable persons • Testing for essential workers • First aid provision
2. Changes made in response to COVID-19
• Maintaining critical competen- cies and standards
• Change management •
Inspections, testing, mainte- nance and repair
• Returning to ‘business as usual’ 3. Specific advice
• Routine inspections and moni- toring
• Street cleansing, public waste bins and fly tipped wastes
• Vehicles and collections opera- tions
• Bulky waste collections
• Mobile plant •
Landfills, MBT and transfer stations
• MRFs and recycling plants • CA/HWRC sites • Welfare facilities • Weighbridges
Risk assessment
Employers, in consultation with em- ployees, decide how they structure their risk assessments. COVID-19 issues and controls may be added to existing tasks or activity assess- ments. However, an overarching assessment of precautions being taken at a business level may be required.
This could be in the form of a state- ment of the approach the organ-
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isation has taken to dealing with COVID-19 issues. In addition, having a single assessment, summary taken from task assessments, or statement, may be better when communicating with employees. This is a matter for employers to decide.
PPE
Use of gloves on waste sites is a well-established practice but should always be combined with good hand washing (or gel) hygiene.
One item of PPE which has been the subject of much publicity is the use of face masks/RPE (respiratory protective equipment), and the use of the term ‘face-coverings’ has become common. This is more of a minefield in terms of guidance – with differing approaches offered by different authorities.
However, only where a risk assess- ment indicates there is the need for RPE are employers under a duty to provide it without charge. The guid- ance document includes more detail about PPE and is a good source of information that has been collated, specifically for the waste and recy- cling sector.
One thing to keep in mind is how to dispose of used PPE. For used PPE from non-health sectors including waste management, and from the public whose use of PPE such as masks and gloves seems likely to increase, PPE should be disposed of into residual waste streams and nor- mal precautions followed. Most PPE is not recyclable and can reduce the quality of recycling waste streams.
Normal service will be resumed…
It is unclear how long social distanc- ing and other measures will remain in place but businesses should be making plans for how they will man- age the transition back to “normal”, making sure that they comply with the current policy and guidance relevant to the location of their operations.
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