Training and evidence for waste and recycling sites

Excavators and telescopic handlers sorting and loading material, vehicles moving constantly through the yard, and the material itself often unknown until it is sorted, is what makes a waste site different from most others. PHW trains the plant operators and the vehicle marshals.

Get a quote The legal position

The risks this trade carries

In your own terms, not a generic hazard list.

Plant sorting and loading material

360 excavators and telescopic handlers used to sort, load and move mixed material need an assessed operator who understands the machine and the site, not just the machine.

Vehicle movement across the site

Collection vehicles, skip lorries and internal plant all moving through the same yard needs a documented marshal procedure, the same as any other high-traffic site.

Unknown or contaminated material

Material arriving on site is not always what the paperwork says it is, which makes COSHH controls and, in older buildings or mixed construction waste, asbestos awareness a standing requirement rather than an occasional one.

Manual handling

Sorting and moving material by hand alongside the plant remains a steady source of injury.

The law that applies

Named, not paraphrased into a claim.

PUWER 1998 regulation 9 places the duty to train and assess plant operator competence on the employer, with the Approved Code of Practice L117 setting out the training model.

The Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992, regulation 17, require a safe layout for vehicle and pedestrian traffic.

The Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002 cover exposure to unknown or contaminated material, and the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012 apply wherever asbestos-containing material could be present.

The Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992 cover material sorted and moved by hand.

Employer duty

The employer still authorises each operator or member of staff in writing; PHW's certificates, records and packs are the evidence the employer relies on for that decision, not a substitute for it.