Keeping Recycling Healthy

April 14, 2020

This guest blog is written by Jordan Fengel, Executive Director, State of Texas Alliance for Recycling (STAR).

A recent article in the Los Angeles Times ran a story titled, “‘These people are warriors.’ Meet the waste workers taking risks to sort your recyclables.”

I agree that these people are warriors. Everyone in our industry right now is helping to ensure that materials management continues and that supply chains are fed, which is urgent during these unprecedented times.

There are a lot of fears about this virus and thankfully research has been ongoing. That research continues to provide us with information on topics such as coronavirus’ survivability outside a host, potential treatments, and how we can reduce a future occurrence. I wrote a paper about the lifespan of the virus on inanimate surfaces as well as what employers and workers can do to keep themselves safe using PPE and established guidelines. My research concluded that though a few studies have shown average lifespans of the virus to exist from 24 hours up to 6 days depending on the surface, there were cabins on the Diamond Princess cruise ship that had living viral activity for up to 17 days after detection.  

As a former paramedic for over a decade, I was exposed on a daily basis to communicable diseases: MRSA, Hep A, B, C, Flu Types A&B, HIV, Strep, Pneumonia and so on; the same diseases are present every day for material management workers when they handle publicly used materials that *potentially* can injury them or cause illness. How did I avoid getting ill or injured? I used my PPE. PPE is what is being used across the globe for those involved in essential services, and it is enabling everything from the treatment of patients to facilitating the operation of critical infrastructure such as food production and materials processing.

My point is that materials management workers should be provided with PPE such as face masks, safety glasses, gloves, and adequate hygiene education and availability in the workplace. Most MRFs have these PPE materials for their staff already and adhere to OSHA regulations and guidelines. For those outside the MRFs, a Resource Recycling article highlighted a webinar where the simple statement was made that municipal solid waste is not considered a source of exposure. This is after consideration of the environment of the recycling and waste material streams combined with pH and temperature, the survivability and likelihood of a transmission from an object to a material handler are considerably low.

We need to expect and promote that people wash their hands frequently at work, in public, and at home. Likewise, employers should not expect workers to come in while sick or have them remain on-duty while exhibiting signs of being ill. We have become complacent as a society with having illnesses to the point that most everyone has had an interaction at work where a co-worker comes in either announcing they have the flu or just had it a couple of days ago. That scenario should not happen anymore after this pandemic subsides. If you are sick stay home, get better, and then come back.

Keeping recycling healthy by ensuring materials are collected, processed and fed to manufacturers is essential right now. Keeping the workplace and workers healthy and safe is equally essential.

We will get through this together, but socially distanced…

Keep recycling and stay safe!

Disclaimer: Guest blogs represent the opinion of the writers and may not reflect the policy or position of the Northeast Recycling Council, Inc.