The United States Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) has released its 2017 Employer-Reported Injury and Illness Report showing improvements in safety within the solid waste collection industry consistent with the national trend. There were approximately 2.8 million nonfatal workplace injuries and illnesses reported by private industry employers in 2017, which occurred at a rate of 2.8 cases per 100 full-time equivalent (FTE) workers. This represents an improvement of 0.1 injuries per 100 FTE workers from 2016.
The waste and recycling industry as a whole had a steady rate of 5.0 while solid waste collections dropped 0.1, similar to the national data. The material recovery facility rate increased from 6.0 to 9.8. Improving the MRF rate will be challenging but we will work with our members to reverse the trend.
BLS data for to the waste and recycling sector show:
NAICS code 562, Waste Collection, held steady at a rate of 5.0.
NAICS code 662111, Solid Waste Collection, declined from 5.2 to 5.1, similar to the national rate.
NAICS code 56292, MRFs, rose from 6.0 to 9.8.
“Today’s BLS release of industry injury and illness data illuminates the progress being made to improve safety performance nationwide, but shows we still have work to do,” said NWRA President and CEO Darrell Smith. “Since our Board of Trustees designated safety as a strategic initiative, NWRA has worked to provide its members with tools and outreach efforts as well as collecting our own data from members to monitor trends in safety.”