SWANA Supports Safe + Sound Week

Encourages solid waste industry to participate and improve worker safety

The Solid Waste Association of North America (SWANA) is proud to support Safe + Sound Week 2022 in order to recognize successful workplace health and safety programs and provide resources to keep America’s workers safe. This year Safe + Sound Week is August 15 – 21, during which SWANA will be sharing safety and health information across its platforms. All organizations are encouraged to participate by starting a safety program, energizing an existing one, or just recognizing safety successes.

“Nothing we do at SWANA is more important than helping workers go home to their families at the end of the day, and unfortunately, we have about one worker fatality per week in the solid waste industry,” stated David Biderman, SWANA’s Executive Director & CEO. “There have been several tragic fatal incidents in the industry over the past few weeks, and we urge solid waste companies and municipal agencies to provide additional resources and training to help keep their workers safe,” Biderman added.

Since early July, solid waste workers have been killed in workplace incidents in Florida, Montana, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. SWANA has sent Safety Alerts about these incidents to the Safety Ambassador in those state chapters.

Support for Safe + Sound Week is part of SWANA’s mission to improve industry safety and get solid waste off the top ten deadliest jobs list. Industry leaders will gather to discuss this at the Safety Summit occurring during WASTECON 2022 in San Diego this December.