EREF helps waste and recycling industry improve safety

The Environmental Research and Education Foundation (EREF) will manage research efforts to improve safety in the waste and recycling industry.

“We appreciate EREF’s role as a strategic partner in this project,” says Kirk Sander, chief of staff of the National Waste & Recycling Association (NWRA). “We expect the research will help us identify practices that are working and not working so we can improve our safety posture.”

Researchers from the University of South Carolina and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln will collect and aggregate data from publicly available databases and other sources. The overall goal of this project is to identify factors contributing to worker fatalities and injuries and use that information to develop guidance aimed at improving awareness of safety issues and promoting safety. The goal is zero fatalities.

“EREF has long supported a better understanding of solid waste management safety by funding multiple research and educational projects," EREF President and CEO Bryan Staley says. "With support [from] project grantees USC and UNL, we will gain a better understanding of how safety incidents occur, which can lead to the development of strategies that can further reduce fatalities."