Measure Safety in Recycling Operations

The risk management committee of the Construction Demolition & Recycling Association (CDRA), Milwaukee, Wisconsin, has launched a new program to encourage companies that are building safety cultures within their organizations. During a webinar early November, John Schumacher of Assurance Agency shared that the Best Practices Safety Award Program from CDRA will reward companies that are moving toward safer work environments.

“The purpose is to help identify a level of safety performance for up-and-coming safety programs that need to take it to the next level,” Schumacher said.

CDRA administration wanted to stress that “managing safety is paramount to success in operation.” By instituting a robust safety program within a construction demolition and/or recycling company, management can reduce incidents and fatalities, obviously, but CDRA administration also pointed out the opportunity to minimize property loss and to lower insurance experience-modifier rate.

For the safety award program, judges will evaluate 14 criteria, including the company’s use of OSHA 300 logs, the use of lockout/tagout programs, a written safety program/policy and employee safety training. Each criteria receives weighted points toward an overall score to determine a “level” of safety mindedness and commitment to safety. The deadline for the first awards program participation was Dec. 31 with winners announced at C&D World Feb. 10 through 13, 2018. Merely filling out the application gives companies a better understanding of where they excel and where they could use improvement in their safety practices.