Commercial waste collections

HSE Guidance - People in commercial bins

Following recent cases of people being found inside commercial waste bins the HSE has issued guidance to all business organisations that use bins of a 660 litres or more.

Commercial organisations should be aware those managing the waste and waste areas as well as those owning the bins could be liable for any injuries resulting from people climbing into bins.  The HSE recommends that organisations should take some simple measures to make sure there are not people inside bins before they are emptied.

The checking of a bin for people inside should be a simple, straightforward process.

Manual checks should comprise of the following elements:

 Banging on the sides of the bin.

 Lifting of the lid of the bin, taking care to ensure that the person undertaking the check does not put themselves at risk by doing so.

 Carrying out a visual examination of the surface of the contents.

Commenting on the guidance Enfield Council AD for Waste Management Neil Isaac said:

"This situation is rare but we all need to be on our guard.  We would encourage all customers and service users to ensure that wherever possible their bin is secured or locked and to carry out some simple and basic checks every time they use the bin to make sure that any potentially fatal incidents are avoided.  It is difficult to cope with this kind of situation but with some simple 'housekeeping' we should be able to avoid any further incidents taking place."

For more information please visit http://www.hse.gov.uk/