The health and safety bodies said that there have been several fatal and near-miss incidents involving these pieces of machinery – which the guidance labels “powerful and dangerous”.
The guidance includes an entirely new document – “FAQ’s – Safety use of Automatic bin lifts on RCVs” – and a slightly updated version of the previously-issued “Safety in the operation of Automatic bin lifting equipment on RCVs”.
WISH released its first position statement on automatic bin lifts in March 2023. Since then, it said that it and HSE have received numerous questions and enquiries regarding health and safety issues. This guidance aims to answer the most common queries.
Chris Jones OBE, chair of WISH, commented: “With programmes of improvements now starting to be made available from bin lift original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), third party’s offering solutions to the safety issues presented by bin lifts in automatic mode and the emergence of the GB Annex to EN1501-5 which addresses the safety requirements of bin lifts in automatic mode, the pace of change on this topic is high and WISH is keen to ensure that duty holders have access to the most up to date guidance and assistance that we can give.”
WISH has said that it will be keeping both documents up to date throughout the coming months.
It asks for any queries to be addressed to info@wishforum.org.uk if the answers cannot be found in either of the documents.
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