Australia’s waste industry has traditionally been one of the most dangerous industries to work in, with fatalities and serious injuries a common occurrence, according to Contained Waste Solutions. The Waste Industry in Australia is primarily captured under the ANZSIC industry division Electricity, gas, water and waste services (which includes waste collection, treatment, disposal, and remediation activities, alongside utilities).
This sector employs around 176,000 workers (about 1.2 per cent of the national workforce). Average serious injury (2018–2022): Approximately 3,000-4,000 serious workers’ compensation claims per year (rate: 2,000-2,500 per 100,000 workers, about 3–4 times the national average of 650 per 100,000). Public Accessible Waste Facilities (PAWF) where the public and operations intersect, are particularly hazardous environments with a well-documented litany of injuries and fatalities.
For almost a century, PAWF designs have remained relatively unchanged, but in today’s OH&S environment, the old design concepts that are still being rolled out represent a significant Civil and Criminal legal risk not only for the site owners but also line managers and supervisors.
The known risks
At PAWF, customers often dispose of waste directly into stockpiles or from platforms into bins or pits while trucks and machines regularly pass in close proximity as part of normal deposition and recovery operations. The separation of people and plants, one of the most fundamental safety principles for any industry, is still routinely breached at PAWF across the country.
The situation has gotten worse with EPA drivers to intercept problem waste and recycle materials, requiring more machine and truck movements in deposition areas to recover these materials. Pushpit and sawtooth (direct to bin) introduce an additional major hazard with elevated platforms, creating serious fall from height consequences that include public fatalities. Despite numerous incidents and notices from various safe work organisations and OH&S audits around the country, the industry has been slow to react to mitigate these obvious risks. The broad awareness of the hazards and the serious consequences in an environment where affordable best practice solutions that eliminate the risks exist weighs against any legal defence argument.
Legal consequences
Most waste managers and councils understand that a workplace incident can trigger a fine or investigation, but few realise how severe the personal consequences can be. Under work health and safety legislation, knowingly or recklessly exposing a person to a risk of death or serious injury can lead to prosecution of both organisations and responsible individuals. Nationally, penalties for responsible individuals can reach $300,000 and five years’ imprisonment, while corporations may face multi-million-dollar fines.
On September 16, 2024, NSW WH&S Penalties for organisations and individuals were increased to a maximum of up to $20M fine and 25 years imprisonment for Category 1 offences. To address the traditionally low prosecution rate associated with these laws, NSW has also established a new $6.9M prosecution unit launched October 2025. It is only a matter of time before cases find their way into the courts, and it is only reasonable to expect that the unit will target the more dangerous industries, like waste, to create the desired legal precedent that forces the industry to pay attention to safety.
In this environment, it will be increasingly difficult for any manager or council to argue that they met their duty of care when a fatality or serious injury occurs. Operating or constructing new facilities based on outdated hazardous designs is no longer just a safety issue, it is a criminal liability. Design consultants in the Waste industry who fail to address the Safety in Design Risks are doing their clients a disservice and may expose themselves to consequential litigation.
What to do:
There are many brave operators in the race to be the first in court as they hold fast to the usual defence that is “this is how we have always done it”. Other more conservative operators are rushing to implement improvements that mitigate their civil and criminal risks by:
- Implementing flat floor waste transfer stations that eliminate the fall from height risks.
- Using systems that contain pedestrians in controlled areas physically separated from commercial vehicle and machine operations.
- Stopping people from accessing landfills by establishing simple, contained waste transfer facilities on the same site.
- Stopping people from accessing remote stockpiles for green waste and metals by providing scope to receive those materials in the same contained and supervised areas as general waste.