Safety Tips for Waste Collection

Waste collection workers spend the whole day on the street, handling heavy machinery and coming in contact with people's garbage. They must practice efficient safety awareness to avoid injury. Every state has its own garbage collector safety requirements, but there are basic safety tips that should always be followed.

Wear Proper Attire

• Wearing the proper clothing while collecting waste is of utmost importance. This includes wearing steel-toe boots in case you drop a heavy item on your foot (i.e. trash or recycling bin); goggles to protect your eyes against flying materials; gloves to keep you out of contact with bacteria and infections; long pants to prevent contact with garbage and scrapes from climbing the truck; and a helmet to protect your head from falling garbage and injury related to operating heavy machinery.

Practice Street Safety

• In addition to worrying about keeping yourself safe from the garbage truck's machinery and people's garbage, it's important to be aware of cars driving by. Before stepping out into any street, make sure no one is coming. If, for some reason, a waste item is in the middle of the street or you need to stop traffic for any reason, you'll need to direct traffic. This requires basic directing skills, which is probably taught in your required safety course. Be aware of your surroundings and don't count on people to slow down for you, or even see the truck for that matter.

Communicate

• Communication with other garbage collectors and the driver of the vehicle is extremely important. Heed your designated hand signals so no one makes a mistake. One operating mistake in garbage collecting could be fatal. Keep your eye out for your partner's well-being, and have him do the same for you. Use a set of understood phrases when possible, and use a set of predetermined hand signals when it's too loud to talk. This could save your life.