SWANA Reports 52 Industry Worker Fatalities In 2020 The Solid Waste Association of North America (SWANA) reported 52 municipal solid waste industry workers were killed in 2020 in the United States and Canada, with nearly 70 percent occurring during collection. The most common type of fatal event was a single vehicle accident in which only a waste collection vehicle was in- volved.The second most common fatality was being struck by a waste collection vehicle, either as a helper or when a driver was out of the cab. Collection fatalities remained steady in 2020 compared to 2019 and were down from 2018 when 42 occurred. Fa- tal incidents at landfills fell from 11 in 2019 to 4 in 2020, and material recovery facilities (MRFs) similarly saw a drop in worker deaths from 4 in 2019 to 1 last year. Fatalities at transfer stations increased from 1 in 2019 to 3 in 2020. In addition to worker fatalities, SWANA also tracks events in which a member of the public is killed in a solid waste related incident. In 2020, 76 members of the public in the United States and Canada were killed in collisions with a solid waste collection vehicle, with about 62 percent being vehicle collisions.The past year saw slightly fewer fatalities than 2019 when there were 80 and continues the decline from 2018 when 101 members of the public died. At the state level, New York had the most fatal incidents with 15, followed by California with 12,Texas with 11, Penn- sylvania with 9, and Florida with 8.
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4 March 15, 2021 Recycling Markets
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