Neal Bolton

By Neal Bolton

For your information, free-climb (unroped) rock climbers have a name for anything over 20 feet above the ground. They call it the Coffin Zone because falls from that height are often fatal.

Because the issue of safety is a broad one, this column will often be directed to topics with broad application to our industry. The Slow Down to Get Around campaign discussed in a recent issue is an example.

But occasionally, we'll zoom in and focus on a specific safety-related issue. It's important to remember that the concept of safety is crucial, but it's still just a concept. To make an impact in our industry, we must be willing to take the steps to deal with a risk once we identify it. Along those lines, we'll be talking about the risks associated with headwalls, retaining walls, or other areas where someone could fall over an edge.

Headwalls or retaining walls are an integral part of the waste unloading procedure at many solid waste facilities, including recycling centers, rural container sites, landfills, and virtually all sizes of transfer stations.

A common design will have customers dropping waste or recyclable materials into a box, container, or trailer, or simply onto the transfer station floor. It's not uncommon to put customers in situations where the drop exceeds 8 feet. Customers who unload directly into transfer trailers are often most at risk because the fall height is greater. If the customer is standing in the back of a pickup, we could be talking about falls of up to 20 feet.

A common accident scenario might begin with a customer backing up to the edge of the transfer truck tunnel, climbing into the bed of his pickup and then tossing items from the pickup over the edge and into the transfer trailer. It might end with the customer yanking on a stuck item, the item suddenly pulling free, and the customer falling out of the pickup and into the transfer trailer.

These types of operations are efficient and economical because they minimize multiple handlings of material, but they are also likely to expose the customer to considerable risk … and the facility to considerable liability.

So why does our industry design, build, and operate facilities with potentially dangerous drop-offs? Here are a few reasons.

Efficiency: In many cases, it is more efficient and less costly to have customers place waste or recyclable materials directly into a box, bin, or transfer trailer than for the operator to pick up the material and place it in a container.

Simplicity: It's relatively simple to construct a Z-wall as a container site or mini transfer station. It is also relatively inexpensive.

Cleanliness: Allowing customers to dump trash into a container instead of on the ground helps minimize blowing litter and keep the overall operation clean and neat.

Tradition: This is the one that gets me. In some cases, these systems are used simply because they've been used in the past.

Safety: In a good-faith effort to eliminate the potentially unsafe situation in which self-haul customers were allowed to drive to a landfill's active area, many landfills constructed self-haul unloading areas. They decided that even though it would cost more, it would be safer and more convenient to have these customers unload far from the landfill's commercial trucks and heavy equipment. Unfortunately, while eliminating one danger zone, they created another.

There are basically two types of facilities where customers must stand at the top edge of a wall, box, or trailer while unloading their vehicles: those that have had an accident … and those that are likely to.

"Free" rock climbers who play near or above the Coffin Zone have a simple rule of thumb: "Don't climb higher than you are willing to fall." Are you asking your customers to unload over an edge that you aren't willing for them to fall over? Probably not, but what can be done?

Do we have a choice? Sometimes it seems we don't. Perhaps the local population and economy have grown dramatically since your facility was built. Waste volumes may have increased accordingly. As a result, your facility may have reached a point where crowding and congested traffic flow limit your usable space and force you into an unloading scenario that is undesirable or even downright unsafe.

In these situations, the solution often appears too difficult or too costly—until someone gets injured or killed, and the facility gets sued. Discussions with operators of facilities that have been sued reveal that amazing clarity comes after an accident and the solution suddenly becomes obvious: eliminate the risk.

Wouldn't it be better to eliminate the risk before an accident occurs? Yes, and here are some ideas.

1. Restructure your operation so that customers unload on a flat surface rather than into a container. Eliminate all potential for customers to fall over an edge.
2. Use a loader or other machine to move waste from where it's dumped to the containers.
3. Eliminate crowding and keep the unloading area clean and accessible.
4. Install parking curbs or other devices to keep vehicles (especially pickups or trucks) from backing up to an edge.
5. If you are going to have customers dump over an edge, immediately install some kind of barrier such as a chain or guard rail to prevent them from falling. Make sure it is high enough to prevent someone from flipping over it.

Safety Quiz

MSW Safety Survey

Dear Readers,

Please click here to complete this survey in order to help us identify how our industry is doing in regard to safety.

The answers to last issue's safety quiz will be published in the March/April 2005 issue.

Neal Bolton is a consultant specializing in landfill operations and management. He is principal of Blue Ridge Services in Atascadero, CA, and author of The Handbook of Landfill Operations.

MSW - January/February 2005