CIWM Briefing Note: This document draws on the latest guidance and understanding, and will be updated and reissued as appropriate. Updates on previous versions are highlighted for ease of reference.

Coronavirus update: UK waste management sector（part 1）

  1. Coronavirus resting opened up to essential waste sector workers
  2. Status of business and workers in the waste management sector
  3. Health & Safety information and guidance
  4. Waste Collection
  5. Regulation and Compliance
  6. Business support schemes and announcements (incl. Landfill Tax flexibility)
  7. Public sector procurement
  8. Transport and logistics

Coronavirus resting opened up to essential waste sector workers

24.04.20 Coronavirus testing has been extended to all essential workers in England who have symptoms, including critical workers in the resources and waste sector.

The move means that essential workers in England, and members of their households who are showing symptoms of coronavirus will now be able to get tested, and will have the reassurance of knowing whether their symptoms are caused by coronavirus and can decide whether they are well enough to return to work.

From today, employers can register and refer self-isolating staff, and from tomorrow employees will be able to book a test directly for themselves or members of their household who are experiencing symptoms – a high temperature or new continuous cough.

Booking is made via a new online system. Essential workers using the new portal can enter their details and will then receive a text or email the same day inviting them to book an appointment at one of more than 30 drive-through testing sites across the country, or to receive a home testing kit. Test results from the drive-through sites will be sent out by text within 48hrs, and within 72hrs of collection of the home delivery tests.

The aim is that most people should not have to drive for more than 45 minutes to get to a regional testing site. However, additional testing methods are being rolled-out to support testing accessibility.

  • A network of new mobile testing units is being rapidly established, which will travel the country to reach care homes, police stations, prisons and other sites where there is demand for testing. The units have been designed to clinical requirements by Army engineers and can be easily set up in under 20 minutes.
  • The new mobile units will work alongside the drive-through test sites, together sending thousands of patient samples to the network of Lighthouse Labs, to rapidly increase the number of tests completed each day.
  • A delivery service for home testing kits has been designed with key industry partners, including Royal Mail and Amazon. The home delivery service will come on line from tomorrow. The availability of home testing kits will initially be limited, but more will become available soon. This will ensure those not able to travel to a test centre can still take the test, find out their results and return to work if possible.
  • Working with Public Health England, the Care Quality Commission and the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services, the government is sending packages of ‘satellite’ test kits directly to care homes across England, to enable testing of symptomatic residents.

Anyone who thinks they are eligible and has symptoms and would like to be tested should speak to their employer or use the self-referral website to request a test. All the relevant links are available https://www.gov.uk/guidance/coronavirus-covid-19-getting-tested but plese note that there has been high demand to register for tests and the link was suspended as at 12.30 today.

Status of business and workers in the waste management sector

There has been some confusion around the meanings of ‘critical businesses’ and ‘critical workers’ and what this means for people making decisions about whether they (a) can access schooling children, (b) are allowed to operate as a business under the current rules and (c) whether they can operate safely given the nature of their work and the measures which can be implemented.

  1. The definition of an ‘critical worker’ only relates to whether the children of defined critical workers can continue to go to school and the waste disposal workers are included in the guidance from the Department of Education:

“Utilities, communication and financial services

This includes staff needed for essential financial services provision (including but not limited to workers in banks, building societies and financial market infrastructure), the oil, gas, electricity and water sectors (including sewerage), information technology and data infrastructure sector and primary industry supplies to continue during the COVID-19 response, as well as key staff working in the civil nuclear, chemicals, telecommunications (including but not limited to network operations, field engineering, call centre staff, IT and data infrastructure, 999 and 111 critical services), postal services and delivery, payments providers and waste disposal sectors.

If workers think they fall within the critical categories above, they should confirm with their employer that, based on their business continuity arrangements, their specific role is necessary for the continuation of this essential public service.”

This critical worker definition does not affect whether or not you can travel to work – if you are not a critical worker, you may still travel to work provided you cannot work from home – see government guidance on ‘Staying at home and away from others (social distancing)’ here

  1. The definition of ‘critical worker’ is not related to the rules regarding which businesses are allowed to operate and those that have been instructed to close, which are listed here
  2. People are instructed to work at home unless it is essential for their work to be done away from home – this is not the same as saying that they can only work if the business is essential.

Health & Safety information and guidance

The protection of both waste management workers and the general public means that it is essential that the highest levels of health and safety are observed, including providing adequate and hygienic washing facilities for personnel, updated risk assessments, deployment and use of appropriate PPE, and clear procedures in the event of a suspected or confirmed case of COVID-19 in the workforce.

23.04.20 The Waste Industry Safety & Health Forum COVID-19 information

WISH has updated its live information note with additional information on social distancing, PPE, shortages of PPE and RIDDOR.

CIWM podcast interviews on the WISH information can be found here

08.04.20 Social distancing in the workplace during coronavirus (COVID-19):

The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) issued updated guidance on Social distancing in the workplace during coronavirus (COVID-19) for a range of sectors including waste management.

07.04.20 Updated guidance on the use of face masks in public

Updated guidance on use of face masks in the community. The UK does not currently advise use of face masks outside of care settings, in line with PPE guidance. Therefore, PHE does not advise masks in public places and for those working in supermarkets, waste collection, schools and similar settings.

07.04.20 The new Coronavirus Status Checker will help the NHS

A new Coronavirus Status Checker will help the NHS coordinate its response. It is open to anyone in the UK to use on the NHS website and in its initial phase the NHS is particularly keen for anyone who thinks they may be displaying potential coronavirus symptoms, no matter how mild, to complete it.

02.04.20 The Waste Industry Safety & Health Forum Northern Ireland COVID-19 information

WISH(NI) has issued two COVID-19 advice documents for the waste management sector:

In the coming days these and further documents will be available on the HSENI website or via the WISHNI LinkedIn page which is available at https://www.linkedin.com/company/wishni/

Waste Collection

15.04.20 Welsh Government: COVID-19 guidance on the prioritisation of waste and recycling collection services

Welsh Government has issued a non-statutory guidance note for service priority, with a high priority ranking for services including food, nappy and AHP waste, clinical and assisted collections from households. The guidance also outlines some of the consequences of pausing the various services and some points under mitigation, providing a useful summary for operators to consider.

09.04.20 – NHS England – guidance on the waste management approach for healthcare facilities in England and Wales

This standard operating procedure document sets out the waste management approach for all healthcare facilities including primary care facilities and testing facilities in England and Wales during the Covid-19 outbreak.

The standard operating procedure (SOP) aims to take simple and pragmatic approach to ensure that waste is managed in a safe manner.  The document covers Trusts, ambulance trusts and community care by healthcare professionals.

The SOP outlines the waste streams and routes they should take to ensure treatment facilities can identify and treat in the correct manner.

08.04.20   Defra – guidance for Local Authorities on waste collection prioritisation

Defra have issued guidance on waste collection prioritisation to assist local authorities. The message from Defra states:

“We know that Local Authorities are doing all they can to maintain waste collection services during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. However, we also recognise that the coronavirus outbreak brings with it unprecedented challenges for the waste sector and LAs may not be able to offer their full range of services during this time. As a result, and in response to requests from some LAs, today, we published waste collection prioritisation guidance for Local Authorities.

This is not statutory guidance and the recommendations in the document may not apply to all LAs – Local Authorities are best placed to know what will work best in their area – but this guidance should help Local Authorities when making service prioritisation decisions during the pandemic.”

A link is also provided to guidance from Public Health England (PHE) which LAs will find helpful.