15 February 2012

During 2011 the Greater Manchester Recycling & Waste (GMRW) Project recorded in excess of 1.7 million man hours without a lost time accident or incident.

In addition to this the GMRW Project – which commenced in the Spring of 2009 - has now worked a total of over 5.5 million man hours and has twice reached well in excess of 1 million man hours without a RIDDOR, Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations.

Project Director, John Boyd, commented: “To have worked over 1.7 million man hours in 2011 without a RIDDOR is a remarkable achievement for the team, especially when you consider the number of separate sites that have been in operation and the nature of the construction and commissioning activities that have been carried out. I am very proud of the efforts that have been put in by all members of the team in ensuring that everyone went home safely at the end of their shift throughout the year. ”

John went on to explain: “The Construction and Process teams work closely with Health Safety & Environment, Manager, Des Roy, in fully engaging with the workforce. We have based a good deal of our safety philosophy in engaging with our supply chain, which we have done through a variety of mechanisms including behavioural based approaches.” 

“We strive for a zero Accident Frequency Rate, (AFR) but we recognise that there is always more that we can do,” says Des. “We have tried very hard to embed safety into the way we do things and a zero AFR is just one way of measuring this. Through education and encouragement, we have ended up with a good number of our subcontractors voluntarily engaging with safety. We operate and implement our SHE systems to a very high standard, but to achieve true success you need the buy in and the teamwork from all concerned.”

Ends