SWANA Urges All Solid Waste Employees to Get Vaccinated

Silver Spring, MD – The Solid Waste Association of North America (SWANA) urges all solid waste workers in the private and public sectors to receive COVID-19 vaccinations and to get booster shots as they become available. Getting vaccinated is the best way to reduce the number of deaths and serious illnesses associated with the coronavirus, which has killed more than 630,000 Americans and nearly 27,000 Canadians since early 2020. As essential workers, it is critical for all employees in the solid waste industry to be vaccinated.

“As the leading and largest solid waste association in the United States and Canada, and the one with a singular focus on health and safety, SWANA urges workers who have not yet been vaccinated to get the shot,” stated David Biderman, SWANA Executive Director and CEO. “Far too many people in the United States and Canada have died from the virus, and in the wake of the FDA’s approval of the Pfizer vaccine and with a similar approval for Moderna expected shortly, SWANA calls on solid waste employees who are not vaccinated to protect themselves, their co-workers, and their families.”

Biderman recently spoke at the SWANA Region 6 conference in Roanoke, Virginia about COVID-19 and other topics, and several attendees mentioned that family members were receiving the vaccine in response to the FDA’s recent approval of the Pfizer vaccine.

“Since the beginning of the pandemic, SWANA has been the industry leader helping local governments and private companies navigate these uncharted territories,” stated Brenda Haney, SWANA President. She added, “SWANA partnered with Glad to distribute money to solid waste employees and their families affected by COVID-19, was selected by the federal government to distribute more than 2 million masks to the solid waste industry, and advocated at the national and state levels for solid waste workers to be prioritized for the vaccines in early 2021.”

Some of the FEMA masks were made available to attendees at the recent SWANA Region 6 conference and will be available to WASTECON^® participants. WASTECON^® will take place on November 1-4 in Orlando, Florida, and will include sessions on how the industry will recover from the pandemic.

SWANA strongly encourages all WASTECON^® participants to be vaccinated against COVID-19.

For more information, visit https://swana.org/.