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PHW · Waste and recycling

Skip wagons reverse across the yard. Pickers are on foot. Could you show who is trained, on the day?

Shovels and telescopic handlers never stop, and the material is not always what the paperwork says. PHW assesses your plant operators and vehicle marshals on your own yard and machines.

Watch, about 1 minute 40 seconds

A fatal reversing accident at a waste yard in Bradford

Biffa Waste Services Ltd was fined £2,480,000 after a worker was fatally struck by a reversing skip wagon. The film shows what HSE or the Environment Agency will ask you, and how PHW assesses your people on your own site.

Sound on. Captions are built in. The words of the film are on its own page.

Be able to answer on the day

Up to four of your people assessed for competence in one day, on your own site and machines, with minimum downtime. Plus a written safe-system pack for each topic.

The risks this trade carries

What goes wrong in a yard like yours.

Plant sorting and loading material

360 excavators, loading shovels and telescopic handlers sorting, loading and moving 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 wagons and yard plant all move through the same ground as pickers and weighbridge staff. That needs a written marshalling procedure and people who have been assessed against it.

Unknown or contaminated material

Material arriving on site is not always what the paperwork says it is. That is a COSHH question every day, and in mixed construction waste it is an asbestos awareness question too.

Manual handling

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

The law that applies

The regulations, by name.

Regulation 9 of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 (PUWER) requires the employer to ensure that everyone who uses work equipment has received adequate training for health and safety. The Approved Code of Practice L22 supports it.

Regulation 17 of the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 requires the workplace to be organised so that pedestrians and vehicles can circulate in a safe manner.

The Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002 cover exposure to hazardous substances at work, including material that turns up in a load. Regulation 10 of the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012 requires adequate information, instruction and training for any employee who is or is liable to be exposed to asbestos.

Regulation 4 of the Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992 requires the employer to avoid hazardous manual handling where reasonably practicable, and otherwise to assess it and reduce the risk of injury.

Employer duty

The employer still authorises each operator or member of staff in writing. PHW's certificates, records and packs are the evidence behind that decision.

What PHW does for you

The machines, packs and records that fit a waste and recycling site.

Machines

360 excavator

Sorting and loading, up to 12 tonnes, tracked or wheeled.

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Machines

Telescopic handler

Sorting and loading material.

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Safety pack

Vehicle marshal (banksman)

Reversing and marshalling for skip wagons and yard plant.

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Safety pack

Workplace transport

Yard layout, drivers, loading and unloading, visiting driver rules.

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Safety pack

COSHH

Controls for material that is not what the paperwork says.

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Safety pack

Asbestos awareness

For people who may disturb it in mixed construction waste.

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Safety pack

Manual handling

Hand sorting and moving material alongside the plant.

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Records

Training matrix

Who is trained on what, with gaps and refresher dates.

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Procedures

Written procedures

Yard and plant procedures written for the work you actually do.

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What you end up holding

What HSE, the Environment Agency or your insurer can ask to see.

  1. Certificates and records for every person trained or assessed
  2. Site evidence statements for site management
  3. A live verification page per operator, checkable at any time
  4. A QR code on the certificate, resolving straight to that record

How verification works → · Take the one-minute check →

Get a quote

Tell us the machines, the pack, and the numbers, and we will come back with a quote and dates.

Get a quote

Real cases

HSE prosecutions in this line of work.

Waste and recycling · Oldbury

Fire Protection Recycling Limited fined £40,000 after a worker was killed by an exploding fire extinguisher

£40,000 + £17,034 costs · 2026-09-14

A fire extinguisher being discharged for recycling exploded and fatally struck a worker in the head.

Read the case →
Waste and recycling · Scunthorpe

PPS Metal Recycling Ltd fined £40,000 after members of the public were struck by falling scrap metal from an unstable stockpile

£40,000 + £6,181 costs · 2026-09-01

A father and son unloading scrap metal were struck by material falling from an unstable stockpile, one breaking a leg.

Read the case →
Waste and recycling · Basildon

Clearaway Recycling Limited fined £400,000 after a worker was crushed by a mobile shredder

£400,000 + £10,259 costs · 2026-08-13

A site operative was trapped between a gate post and a mobile shredder at a site where the company had not managed the movement of pedestrians and vehicles, suffering life-threatening injuries.

Read the case →

See all real cases →