The project presented is titled “Educating to Work Safely”

UTE Ecological Treatments of Maresme, of the Consortium plant for the Treatment of Solid Urban Waste has won the Asepeyo prize for preventive practices which is awarded annually by the mutual insurance company, and will be presented on the 24th of January in Bilbao.

The winning project is titled “Educating to Work Safely” and focuses on behavioural modifications of the plant workers in relation to safety in their workplace.

Key practices have been the organisation of the Physical and Postural Education conferences to prevent musculoskeletal disorders.

All the workers attended these conferences, and in them the trainer interviewed the workers to find out the different physical problems that their work produced, which parts of their body they used most during their working day, and their physical activity habits.

The basis of the company’s activity is the correct separation and classification of waste in order to achieve the maximum recovery of materials, as well as the correct development of the process. The first classification of materials is carried out in the manual selection cabins, where paper, cardboard and glass is recovered. Bulky waste is also separated here to prevent it interfering with the rest of the production line.

In 2014, a programme of structural modifications was introduced which included the improvement of hoppers and parts of the conveyer belt to reduce blockage. This resulted in an important reduction in workplace accidents due to the elimination of the risk of forced postures during the unblocking operations.

Despite this improvement, incidents of musculoskeletal disorders are still the biggest cause of injuries, and so other measures were put into practice.

In 2015 this programme of modifications continued, and together with the Health and Safety Committee, it was decided to intensify the awareness campaign for behavioural change with the aim of integrating and interiorizing risk prevention as part of the work of every person who forms a part of the company.

With this proposal, as part of the 2015 campaign a programme of monthly meetings with the different collectives (plant managers, operators, shift managers) was initiated, where a section on risk prevention was included along with the production data.

During 2016 the campaign continued with monthly meetings with the workers and the Health and Safety Committee, in which the delegates of risk prevention and the institutional part of the company are represented. From these work sessions, various proposals arose for the campaigns of awareness and sensitization which are producing better results in the efforts for prevention.